Apollo-Soyuz Test Project

Donald K. Slayton Thomas P. Stafford Vance D. Brand Alexei A. Leonov Valeriy N. Kubasov
	APOLLO-SOYUZ TEST PROJECT
	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.