Astronaut Deke Slayton Honored

In the Kennedy Space Center’s Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility, engineers and technicians are preparing to close the hatch on the Orbital ATK CRS-4 spacecraft. When the International Space Station crew members enter the Cygnus, they will be greeted with a sign that notes that the spacecraft has been named for the late Deke Slayton. A member of the Mercury 7 astronaut class, Slayton was a member of the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project crew that linked up with a Soviet Soyuz in 1975. Scheduled to launch Dec. 4, 2015, the enhanced Orbital ATK Cygnus spacecraft will lift off atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket from Space launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.

Photo credit: NASA/Dimitri Gerondidakis