ApolloSoyuz Test Project

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ApolloSoyuz Test Project

The Apollo spacecraft, as seen by the Soyuz crew.

Mission type Cooperative/scientific
Operator
NASA
Mission duration 9 d 01 h 28 min
Distance
~5,990,000 km (3,720,000 mi)
travelled
Orbits completed 148

Spacecraft
Launch mass
Dry mass
Payload mass

Spacecraft properties
Apollo CSM-111
16,780 kg or 36,990 lb (total CSM and
DM)
14,768 kg (32,558 lb) (CSM)
2,012 kg or 4,436 lb (Docking Module)
Crew

Crew size
Members
Callsign

3
Thomas P. Stafford
Vance D. Brand
Donald K. Slayton
Apollo
Start of mission

Launch date
Rocket
Launch site

19:50:00, July 15, 1975 (UTC)

Saturn IB SA-210
Kennedy LC-39B

Landing date
Landing site

End of mission
21:18:00, July 24, 1975 (UTC)
2152N 16245W

Perigee
Apogee
Inclination
Period

Orbital parameters
217 km (135 mi)
231 km (144 mi)
51.7 or 51.75[which?]
87.6 or 88.91 minutes[which?]

Docking with Soyuz 19

Docking date First: 16:19:09, July 17, 1975 (UTC)
Undocking date Last: 15:26:12, July 19, 1975 (UTC)
Time docked 1 day, 23 hours, 07 min, 03 sec

Left to right: Slayton, Brand, Stafford

The ApolloSoyuz Test Project (ASTP) (Russian:

, Eksperimantalniy polyot Soyuz-Apollon, lit. "Experimental flight Soyuz-Apollo"),

conducted in July 1975, was the first joint U.S.Soviet space flight, and the last flight of an
Apollo spacecraft.
Its primary purpose was as a symbol of the policy of dtente that the two superpowers were
pursuing at the time, and marked the end of the Space Race between them that began in 1957.
The mission included both joint and separate scientific experiments (including an engineered
eclipse of the Sun by Apollo to allow Soyuz to take photographs of the solar corona), and
provided useful engineering experience for future joint USRussian space flights, such as the
ShuttleMir Program and the International Space Station.
ASTP was the last manned US space mission until the first Space Shuttle flight in April 1981. It
was also U.S. astronaut Donald "Deke" Slayton's only space flight. He was chosen as one of the
original Mercury Seven astronauts in April 1959, but had been grounded until 1972 for medical
reasons.

Contents

1 Apollo crew
o 1.1 Backup crew
o 1.2 Crew notes

2 Soyuz crew
o 2.1 Backup crew

3 Historical background

4 Mission summary
o 4.1 Background
o 4.2 Launch and mission
o 4.3 Re-entry and aftermath

5 Spacecraft locations

6 Legacy

7 Commemorations

o 7.1 Monument

8 Program cost

9 See also

10 References

11 External links

Apollo crew

A Saturn IB launch vehicle lifts the American ASTP crew into orbit.
Position
Astronaut
Thomas P. Stafford
Commander
Fourth and last spaceflight
Vance D. Brand
Command Module Pilot
First spaceflight
Donald K. Slayton
Docking Module Pilot
Only spaceflight

Backup crew
Position
Commander
Command Module Pilot
Docking Module Pilot

Crew notes

Astronaut
Alan L. Bean
Ronald E. Evans
Jack R. Lousma

Mission control center in Houston during ASTP.

Jack Swigert had originally been assigned as the command module pilot for the ASTP prime
crew, but prior to the official announcement he was removed as punishment for his involvement
in the Apollo 15 postage stamp incident.[1]
Support crew
Karol J. Bobko, Robert L. Crippen, Robert F. Overmyer, Richard H. Truly
Flight directors
Pete Frank (Orange team), Neil Hutchinson (Silver team), Don Puddy (Crimson team),
Frank Littleton (Amber team)

Soyuz crew

A Soyuz-U launch vehicle lifts the Soviet crew into orbit.

Soyuz 19

Soyuz 19 as seen from the Apollo.

Mission type Cooperative/scientific
Mission duration 5 d 22 h 30 m
Distance travelled ~3,900,000 km (2,400,000 mi)
Orbits completed 96
Spacecraft properties
Spacecraft type Soyuz 7K-TM
Dry mass
6,790 kg (14,970 lb)
Crew
Crew size
Members
Callsign

Launch date
Rocket
Launch site

Landing date

Perigee
Apogee

2
Alexey Leonov
Valeri Kubasov
(Soyuz - "Union")
Start of mission
12:20:00, July 15, 1975 (UTC)
Soyuz-U
Gagarin's Start
Baikonur Cosmodrome
Kazakh SSR
End of mission
10:50:00, July 21, 1975 (UTC)
Orbital parameters
218 km (135 mi) or 186 km (116 mi)[which?]
231 km (144 mi) or 220 km (140 mi)[which?]

Inclination
Period

51.76 or 51.8[which?]
88.92 or 88.5 min[which?]

Docking with Apollo

Docking date First: 16:19:09, July 17, 1975 (UTC)
Undocking date Last: 15:26:12, July 19, 1975 (UTC)
Time docked 1 day, 23 hours, 07 min, 03 sec

Soyuz crew pictured with the Apollo crew

Left to right: Slayton, Stafford, Brand, Leonov, Kubasov

Soyuz programme
Soyuz 18

Soyuz 20
Position
Commander

Flight Engineer

Cosmonaut
Alexey Leonov
Second and last spaceflight
Valeri Kubasov
Second spaceflight

Backup crew
Position
Commander
Flight Engineer

Cosmonaut
Anatoly Filipchenko
Nikolay Rukavishnikov

Historical background
The purpose and catalyst of the ApolloSoyuz Test Project was the policy of dtente between the
two Cold War superpowers, the United States and the Soviet Union. Prior to this mission,
tensions remained high between the two world superpowers while the United States was engaged
in the Vietnam War. Meanwhile, the Soviet press was highly critical of the Apollo space
missions, printing "the armed intrusion of the United States and Saigon puppets into Laos is a
shameless trampling underfoot of international law" over a photograph of the Apollo 14 launch
in 1971.[2] Although Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev made the Soviet Unions policy of dtente
official in his 1956 doctrine of peaceful coexistence at the 20th Congress of the Communist Party
of the Soviet Union, the two nations seemed to be in perpetual conflict.
Due to tense relations, space cooperation between the United States and the Soviet Union was
unlikely in the early 1970s. Each nation was making its own extravagant claims about
accomplishments in space[dubious discuss]. Most recently on June 7, 1971, the USSR had bragging
rights over the first piloted orbital space station, Salyut 1. Meanwhile, the United States had
launched the Apollo 14 mission several months prior, the third spacecraft to land humans on the
moon. Each side gave the other close to no coverage whatsoever of their achievements.[2]
Furthermore, both sides had severe criticisms of the other sides engineering. Soviet spacecraft
were designed with automation in mind; the Lunokhod 1 and Luna 16 were both unmanned
probes, and each Soyuz spacecraft had been designed to minimize risk due to human error by
having fewer manual controls with which human operators would have to contend during flight.
By contrast, the Apollo spacecraft was designed to be operated by humans and required highly
trained astronauts in order to operate. The Soviet Union accused the Apollo spacecraft of being
"extremely complex and dangerous".[2]
The Americans also had their own concerns about Soviet spacecraft. Christopher Johnson,
director of the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center,[when?] critiqued the design of the Soyuz: "We in
NASA rely on redundant components--if an instrument fails during flight, our crews switch to
another in an attempt to continue the mission. Each Soyuz component, however, is designed for a
specific function; if one fails, the cosmonauts land as soon as possible. The Apollo vehicle also
relied on astronaut piloting to a much greater extent than did the Soyuz machine".[3] However,
American and Soviet engineers already settled their differences for a possible docking of
American and Soviet spacecraft in meetings between June and December 1971 in Houston and
Moscow, including Bill Creasys design of an androgynous docking system between the two
ships that would allow either to be active or passive during docking.[4]
With the close of the Vietnam War, relations between the United States and the USSR began to
improve, as did the prognosis for a potential cooperative space mission.[2] The Apollo-Soyuz Test
Project was made possible by the thaw in these relations, and the project itself endeavored to
amplify and solidify the improving relations between the United States and the Soviet Union.
According to Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev, "The Soviet and American spacemen will go up
into outer space for the first major joint scientific experiment in the history of mankind. They
know that from outer space our planet looks even more beautiful. It is big enough for us to live

peacefully on it, but it is too small to be threatened by nuclear war".[2] Thus, both sides
recognized ASTP as a political act of peace.[5]
In October 1970, Soviet Academy of Sciences president Mstislav Keldysh responded to NASA
Administrator Thomas O. Paines letter proposing a project about a cooperative space mission,
and there was subsequently a meeting to discuss technical details. By January 12, U.S. President
Richard Nixon's Foreign Policy Adviser Henry Kissinger enthusiastically espoused plans for the
mission, and expressed these views to NASA administrator George M. Low: "As long as you
stick to space, do anything you want to do. You are free to commit--in fact, I want you to tell
your counterparts in Moscow that the President has sent you on this mission."[6] By April 1972,
both the United States and the USSR signed an Agreement Concerning Cooperation in the
Exploration and Use of Outer Space for Peaceful Purposes,[7] committing both the USSR and the
United States to the launch of the ApolloSoyuz Test Project in 1975.[8]

U.S. President Richard Nixon and Soviet Premier Alexei Kosygin (seated) sign an agreement
paving the way for the ApolloSoyuz flight, May 1972
ASTP was particularly significant for the USSRs policy of keeping the details of their space
program secret from the Soviet people and the world at large, especially Americans. The ASTP
was the first space mission to be televised in a live fashion during the launch, while in space, and
during the landing.[2] Furthermore, Soyuz 19 was the first spacecraft to which a foreign flight
crew had access before flight. The Apollo crew were permitted to inspect Soyuz 19 as well as the
launch and crew training site, constituting an unprecedented sharing of information with
Americans about any Soviet space program.
Not all reactions to ASTP were positive, however. Many Americans feared that ASTP was giving
the USSR too much credit in their space program, putting them on equal footing with the
sophisticated space exploration efforts of NASA. More feared that the apparent peaceful
cooperation between the USSR and the United States would lull people into believing there was
no conflict at all between the two superpowers.[2] However, soliciting appropriations from the
American Congress proved to be quite difficult, which was not a problem in the Soviet Union,
and the dedication to space exploration demonstrated by the Soviet Union rejected these
criticisms. Some Soviet publicists called American critics of the mission "demagogues who stand
against scientific cooperation with the U.S.S.R."[2] In general, however, tensions between the
United States and the USSR had softened, and the project set a precedent for future cooperative
projects in space.[7]

Mission summary

A 1973 artist's conception of an Apollo-type spacecraft (on left) about to dock with a Soviet
Soyuz-type spacecraft.

Background
The ApolloSoyuz Test Project entailed the docking of an American Apollo Command/Service
Module (CSM) with a Soviet Soyuz 7K-TM spacecraft. Although the Soyuz was given a mission
designation number (Soyuz 19) as part of the ongoing Soyuz program, it was referred to simply
as "Soyuz" for the duration of the joint mission. Similarly, the call sign for the Apollo spacecraft
during the mission was simply "Apollo". A few NASA web pages refer to the spacecraft as
"Apollo 18" but this should not be confused with the canceled lunar mission.[9][10][11][12]
The Apollo spacecraft was launched with a docking module specially designed to enable the two
spacecraft to dock with each other, used only once for this mission. The Saturn IB launch vehicle
and CSM were surplus material. Like the Apollo Lunar Module, the docking module had to be
retrieved from the S-IVB upper-stage of the Saturn rocket after launch. The docking module was
designed as both an airlock as the Apollo was pressurized at 5.0 psi using pure oxygen, while
the Soyuz used a nitrogen/oxygen atmosphere at sea level pressure and an adapter, since the
surplus Apollo hardware used for the ASTP mission was not equipped with the APAS docking
collar jointly developed by NASA and the Soviet Academy of Sciences for the mission. One end
of the docking module was attached to the Apollo using the same "probe-and-drogue" docking
mechanism used on the Lunar Module and the Skylab space station, while its other end had the
APAS docking collar, which Soyuz 19 carried in place of the standard Soyuz/Salyut system of
the time. The APAS collar fitted onto Soyuz 19 was releasable, allowing the two spacecraft to
separate.
The Apollo flew with a three-man crew on board: Tom Stafford, Vance Brand, and Deke Slayton.
Stafford had already flown into space three times, including within eight miles of the lunar
surface, and was the first general officer to fly into space (he was a brigadier general in the
United States Air Force at the time of the flight; he would retire with three stars in 1979). Slayton
was one of the original Mercury Seven astronauts selected in 1959, but an irregular heartbeat
grounded him until 1972. He became head of NASA's astronaut office and, after a lengthy
medical program, selected himself for this mission. At the time, Slayton was the oldest person to
fly in space and the one with the longest gap between selection as an astronaut and first flight
into space. Brand, meanwhile, had trained with the Apollo spacecraft used for this mission
during his time as a backup Apollo 15 command module pilot, and had served two stints as a
backup Skylab commander. The closest he came to flying prior to ASTP was as commander for

the Skylab Rescue mission mustered to potentially retrieve the crew of Skylab 3 due to a fuel
leak on that mission's Apollo CSM.
The Soyuz flew with two men: Alexey Leonov and Valeri Kubasov. Leonov became the first
man to walk in space on Voskhod 2 in 1965. Kubasov, who flew on Soyuz 6 in 1969, ran some of
the earliest space manufacturing experiments. Both were slated to have flown on the ill-fated
Soyuz 11 in 1971 (Leonov as commander, Kubasov as the flight engineer), but were grounded
because Kubasov was suspected to have tuberculosis. The two-man crew on the Soyuz was a
result of the modifications needed to allow the cosmonauts to wear the Sokol pressure suit during
launch, docking, and reentry.
The ASTP-class Soyuz 7K-TM spacecraft used was a variation of the post-Soyuz 11 two-man
design, with the batteries replaced by solar panels enabling "solo" flights (missions not docking
to one of the Salyut space stations). It was designed to operate, during the docking phase, at a
reduced nitrogen/oxygen pressure of 10.2 psi, allowing easier transfers between the Apollo and
Soyuz. Six ASTP-class Soyuz spacecraft were built in total, including the one used. Before the
actual mission, two craft were launched unmanned as Kosmos satellites. The third was launched
as the manned Soyuz 16 flight as a rehearsal in order to test the APAS docking mechanism.
Another craft was used fully fueled as a "hot backup" at the launch site later it was
disassembled. And the sixth craft was available as a "cold" backup; it was later used on the last
"solo" Soyuz flight in 1976, but with the APAS docking adapter replaced by the MKF-6
multispectral camera.

Launch and mission

The historic handshake between Stafford and Leonov

U.S. President Gerald Ford speaks to the Soviet and American crews on July 18, 1975.

The astronauts and cosmonauts assembled this commemorative plaque in orbit as a symbol of the
international cooperation.
The Soyuz and Apollo flights launched within seven-and-a-half hours of each other on July 15,
and docked on July 17. Three hours later, the two mission commanders, Stafford and Leonov,
exchanged the first international handshake in space through the open hatch of the Soyuz. NASA
had calculated that the historic handshake would have taken place over the British seaside resort
of Bognor Regis,[13] but a delay resulted in its occurrence being over the town of Metz in France.
[14]
During the first crew exchange, the crews were read a statement from Soviet Premier Leonid
Brezhnev, and received a phone call from U.S. President Gerald Ford.
While the two ships were docked, the three Americans and two Soviets conducted joint scientific
experiments, exchanged flags and gifts (including tree seeds which were later planted in the two
countries), signed certificates, visited each other's ships, ate together, and conversed in each
other's languages. (Because of Stafford's pronounced drawl when speaking Russian, Leonov later
joked that there were three languages spoken on the mission: Russian, English, and
"Oklahomski.") There were also docking and redocking maneuvers, during which the two
spacecraft reversed roles and the Soyuz became the "active" ship.
American scientists developed four of the experiments performed during the mission.
Embryologist Jane Oppenheimer analyzed the effects of weightlessness on fish eggs at various
stages of development.[15]
After 44 hours together, the two ships separated, and maneuvered to use the Apollo to create an
artificial solar eclipse to allow the crew of the Soyuz to take photographs of the solar corona.
Another brief docking was made before the ships went their separate ways. The Soviets remained
in space for five days, and the Americans for nine, during which the Apollo crew also conducted
Earth observation experiments.

Re-entry and aftermath

The mission was considered a great success, both technically and as a public-relations exercise
for both nations. The only serious problem was during reentry and splashdown of the Apollo
craft, during which the crew were accidentally exposed to toxic nitrogen tetroxide fumes, caused
by the reaction control system (RCS) oxidizer venting from the spacecraft and reentering a cabin
air intake. The RCS was inadvertently left on during descent, and highly toxic nitrogen tetroxide
was sucked into the spacecraft as it drew in outside air. Brand briefly lost consciousness, while

Stafford retrieved emergency oxygen masks, put one on Brand, and gave one to Slayton. The
three astronauts were hospitalized for two weeks in Honolulu.[16] Brand took responsibility for
the mishap; because of high noise levels in the cabin during reentry, he believes he was unable to
hear Stafford call off one item of the reentry checklist, the closure of two switches which would
have automatically shut off the RCS and initiated drogue parachute deployment. These
procedures were manually performed later than usual, allowing the ingestion of the propellant
fumes through the ventilation system.[17]
The ASTP was the final flight of an Apollo spacecraft. Immediately after the launch of the
Apollo spacecraft, preparations began to convert Launch Pad 39B and the Vehicle Assembly
Building at Kennedy Space Center for use by the Space Shuttle, the United States' next manned
spacecraft program. Launch Pad 39A had already been closed after the launch of Skylab.

Spacecraft locations
The Apollo Command Module from the mission is on display at the California Science Center in
Los Angeles. The descent module of Soyuz 19 is on display at the RKK Energiya museum in
Korolyov, Moscow Oblast, Russia.
A display at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C. shows the docked
Apollo/Soyuz configuration with the restored Apollo Command and Service Module used for
testing prior to the mission, the back-up Docking Module, and a model of the Soyuz spacecraft.
An identical Soyuz model is exhibited at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex. A full-size
mockup of the two docked spacecraft is located at the Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Center.

The ApolloSoyuz display in the National Air and Space Museum

Legacy
A derivative (but mechanically incompatible) docking collar, APAS-89 was launched as part of
the Kristall module of the Soviet Mir space station. Originally intended as the docking port for
the (defunct) Buran Soviet space shuttle, the APAS-89 unit was used for the next RussoAmerican docking mission, STS-71, twenty years later as part of the ShuttleMir Program
(though not before the docking port was tested by the last APAS-equipped Soyuz, TM-16, in
1993).

The American Space Shuttle continued to use the same APAS-89 docking hardware through the
end of the Space Shuttle program to dock to Mir and then the International Space Station, the
latter through the Pressurized Mating Adapters (PMAs).
The PMAs are equipped with the later APAS-95 adapters, which differ from the APAS-89
adapters in that they are no longer androgynous; while compatible with the APAS-89 docking
collars, they are not capable of acting as the "active" partner in docking.
The first PMA, PMA-1, remains in use as the interface connecting the Russian-built, NASAowned Zarya module to the US segment of the ISS, and so the APAS continues in use to this day.
A minor planet, 2228 Soyuz-Apollo, discovered in 1977 by Soviet astronomer Nikolai
Stepanovich Chernykh, is named after the mission.[18]

Commemorations

SoyuzApollon, Issue of 1975, USSR

The US Postal Service issued the ApolloSoyuz commemorative stamps, honoring the United
StatesSoviet link up in space, on July 15, 1975, the day of the launch. The remaining crew's
most recent reunion was on July 16, 2010, when Leonov, Kubasov, Stafford, and Brand met at an
Omega timepiece store in New York City. All except Leonov participated in a public roundtable
that evening. Omega had produced several watches to be used on the mission.[19]

ApolloSoyuz, Issue of 1975, USA

Monument

In the wake of the mission, a large ApolloSoyuz monument was constructed outside TsUP (the
Soviet, later Russian space control center) in Moscow. It consisted of a metal Earth overarched
by an arc terminating in a scale model of the joined ApolloSoyuz spacecraft. It was damaged
when a vehicle collided with it in the late 1990s[citation needed], and was removed for repairs.

Program cost
The United States spent $245 million on ApolloSoyuz, or $1 billion in 2010 inflation-adjusted
dollars.[20]

See also

Interkosmos, a Soviet space program from 1967 to 1994, designed to give foreign nations
access to space missions.

List of spaceflight-related accidents and incidents

Spaceflight portal