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 checked on his ''erratic heartbeat" and knocked him off the schedule as the next U.S. space traveler (TiME.

March 23). "I feel the situation developed through ignorance of the problem and resulting panic." said Deke to Sparta's Mayor Ralph Osborne.

His own disappointment, he said, was "relatively unimportant, but the possible damage caused to the national and international confidence in our manned space program is of great concern." He attributed his grounding to physicians who did not understand an astronaut's problems.

and his annoyance was understandable.

His erratic heartbeat had been no secret long before he was chosen for the next orbital flight. "Your support in the continuous struggle to force decisions based on fact rather than fear." he told the mayor, "is greatly appreciated." NASA officials were "a little bit surprised." but they planned to take no action against Major Slayton. Said a spokesman: ''His point of view was that of a disappointed person who missed out on a flight he wanted very badly."

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