NASA Programs
Apollo–Soyuz Test Project
A docking in orbit and a handshake that closed the Apollo era and opened cooperation.
The Apollo–Soyuz Test Project (ASTP) was the first joint crewed mission between the United States and the Soviet Union. An Apollo command and service module, fitted with a new docking module, launched from Kennedy Space Center on 15 July 1975. A Soyuz launched from Baikonur the same day.
On 17 July the spacecraft docked. Thomas Stafford and Alexei Leonov shook hands through the hatch—an image that came to stand for a thaw in the Cold War. The crews visited each other’s vehicles, shared meals, and practiced joint procedures before separating and returning home.
ASTP was the last flight of an Apollo spacecraft and the last U.S. crewed launch until the Space Shuttle in 1981. The docking experience and the working relationships it built later helped make Shuttle–Mir and the International Space Station possible.
Milestones
- 1975-07-15Dual launch — Apollo and Soyuz lift off hours apart for a planned rendezvous.
- 1975-07-17Handshake in space — Stafford and Leonov meet through the docking hatch after the vehicles join.
Summary original to flyARIA.com. Photograph: NASA. NASA images are generally not protected by copyright in the United States; credit does not imply endorsement.