Deke
Why was he grounded? I thought all the men said they would not replace someone who is grounded, when the first man got grounded about his wife not letting someone in her house.
shareIt was atrial fibrillation that grounded Deke.
shareIt was explained in the show. He had a heart murmur and NASA was aware of it when he was accepted in to the program. They then changed their minds after he was scheduled to be the next astronaut to orbit the earth. That's why his wife called the President. How's that for supportive wife! Apparently she also said she would have called God if she could have. Love her!
shareRead Deke's book for his side of the grounding story. He was "hard grounded," both by NASA and the Air Force. The show doesn't make it clear that Deke was looking at his Air Force career being abruptly terminated as well, which was a big deal. If NASA hadn't given him the astronaut's office to run, he would have been out of work completely. He also had a good case that he was being shafted by overly-careful NASA doctors because the Air Force had known about his heart murmur for years and continued to certify him as a pilot.
His book is a very opinionated, albeit not all that truthful, story of his astronaut career.