In July 1975, an international space mission was flown that
many believed impossible given the differences between the
two countries involved. For the first time, the United States
and the Soviet Union cooperated in a venture that resulted in
their spacecraft joining to become a single vehicle in orbit.
For this mission, the two nations relied on proven space vehicles
- the Soviet Soyuz and the American Apollo. In order for the
vehicles to fit together, a special docking module was designed
to provide a passageway between the two.
The mission began on July 15, 1975, with Soyuz launching from the
Balkonur Cosmodrome and Apollo from Kennedy Space Center. Two days
later, the spacecraft docked 222 kilometers above Earth and remained
together for two days. The Soyuz crew returned to Earth on July 21st
and the Americans on the 24th. The three astronauts and two cosmonauts
of the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project proved that two diverse nations could
cooperate in space flight research, accomplish possible rescue missions
in space, and take an essential first step toward a multinational
orbiting space station.
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