Science: Astronaut's Blast-Off

Grounded Astronaut Donald K.

("Deke") Slayton blasted off last week with the roar of a soaring Atlas. ''We have only begun to fight," he wrote to the chamber of commerce of his home town, Sparta, Wis. ''We have lost a skirmish, but the battle is not yet over.

There are weak hearts associated with this situation, but they do not belong to us Spartans." Air Force Major Slayton. 38, wanted the folks back home to understand that as far as he was concerned, there was nothing wrong with his health or his heart —despite the fact that an Air Force medical board had...

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