Apollo–Soyuz Test Project

On this day in 1975 a Saturn IB launch vehicle took off from Kennedy Space Center and a Soyuz U launch vehicle took off from Baikonur Cosmodrome. The aim of the Apollo–Soyuz Test Project was to symbolize the reduction in tension that had taken place between the two superpowers. On board the Apollo CSM-111 were Thomas Stafford, Vance Brand and Donald Slayton. On board the Soyuz 7K-TM were Alexey Leonov and Valeri Kubasov. The two spacecraft docked on 17 July. The five astronauts conducted joint experiments, exchanged flags and gifts and visited each others’ ships. After almost two days together, the ships separated. Brand then maneuvered Apollo to place the ship between the Sun and Soyuz and enable the crew of the Soyuz to take photographs of the solar corona. The mission was a milestone not just for the international cooperation that it embodied. It was the last Apollo mission and the last launch of a Saturn rocket. NASA’s did not send astronauts into space again until 1981, when the Space Shuttle’s undertook its first mission.

Date in History: 15 July 1975