APOLLO-SOYUZ TEST PROJECT

“Handshake in Space”

Apollo Crew: Thomas P. Stafford, Vance D. Brand, Donald K. Slayton
Soyuz Crew:Alexey A. Leonov, Valery N. Kubasov

Apollo Launch Vehicle: Saturn 1B Soyuz Launch Vehicle: Soyuz rocket

Launch:

Apollo: July 15, 1975
Soyuz: July 15, 1975

Landing:

Apollo: July 24, 1975
Soyuz: July 21, 1975

The final flight of the Apollo program was the first spaceflight in which spacecraft from different nations docked in space. In July 1975, a U.S. Apollo spacecraft carrying a crew of three docked with a Russian Soyuz spacecraft with its crew of two.

The Docking Module was designed jointly by the US and Soviet Union, and built in the United States. Its purpose was to enable a docking between the Soviet Soyuz spacecraft and the U.S. Apollo. It was a 3 meter long cylinder, 1.5 meters in diameter, and in addition to serving as a docking device, and also served as an airlock module between the different atmospheres of the two ships (the U.S. ship with 100% oxygen; the Soyuz with a mixed oxygen-nitrogen atmosphere).

It was the first launch ever broadcast live by the totalitarian Soviet state.