The Soyuz and Apollo flights launched within seven-and-a-half hours of each other on July 15, and docked on July 17. NASA had calculated that the historic handshake would have taken place over the British seaside resort of Bognor Regis, but a delay resulted in its occurrence being over the town of Metz in France Read more
The Apollo-Soyuz Test Project (ASTP) was the first joint flight of the U.S. and Soviet space programs. Soviet Soyuz and American Apollo spacecrafts docked on July 17, 1975, which launched the start of Soviet-American cooperation in space. Read more
Thirty-five years ago Russia and the US took a giant leap for mankind with the launch of their first joint space mission, Apollo-Soyuz, which marked the beginning of an era of space cooperation between the two countries. It was also a turning point that launched the keenly fought Cold War space race into new heights. Two rockets, blasting off half a world away from each other, would bring the Soviet Union and the United States into the same orbit. When Soyuz-19 and the Apollo craft docked, the event ushered in a whole new chapter in space exploration - the first-ever joint project between two bitter rivals. Read more
Events to mark the 30th anniversary of the Apollo-Soyuz space project open in the National Air and Space Museum, Washington, D.C., Today. "Thirty years ago in July, a new era of international cooperation began when the world's two space powers shook hands in space" - National Air and Space Museum's (NASM) news release. The Apollo-Soyuz mission was the first time American and Soviet craft had docked in space during the Cold War. Russian cosmonauts Alexei Leonov and Valery Kubasov and American astronaut Tom Stafford, the co-chairman of the Discovery space shuttle's flight preparatory commission, will attend the celebrations in the NASM to remember their historic meeting in space. The Soviet Soyuz and American Apollo spacecrafts docked on July 17, 1975, which launched the start of Soviet-American cooperation in space.