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Apollo-Soyuz Test Project

Mission Insignia
Apollo-Soyuz insigniaApollo-Soyuz insignia
Mission Statistics (Soyuz)
Mission Name:	Soyuz 19
Call Sign:	Союз (Soyuz - "Union")
Number of Crew:	2
Launch:	July 15, 1975 12:20:00 UTC Baikonur
Apogee:	231 km
Perigee:	218 km
Period:	88.92 min
Inclination:	51.76 deg
Landing:	July 21, 1975 10:50:00 UTC 57° N 67° E
Duration:	5 d 22 h 30 min 54 s
Number of Orbits:	96
Distance Traveled:	~2,400,000 mi (~3,900,000 km)
Mass:	Soyuz 6,790 kg
Mission Statistics (Apollo)
Mission Name:	Apollo
Call Sign:	Apollo
Number of Crew:	3
Launch:	July 15, 1975 19:50:00 UTC Kennedy Space Center LC-39B
Apogee:	231 km
Perigee:	217 km
Period:	88.91 min
Inclination:	51.75 deg
Landing:	July 24, 1975 21:18:00 UTC 21°52′N 162°45′W / 21.867°N 162.750°W / 21.867; -162.750
Duration:	9 d 1 h 28 min 24 s
Number of Orbits:	148
Distance Traveled:	~3,700,000 mi (~5,990,000 km)
Mass:	CSM 14,768 kg DM 2,012 kg
Crew Picture
ASTP crew portrait (L-R: Slayton, Stafford, Brand, Leonov, Kubasov)
Mission Spacecraft

The Apollo-Soyuz Test Project was the first joint flight of the U.S. and Soviet space programs. The mission took place in July 1975. For the United States of America, it was the last Apollo flight, as well as the last manned space launch until the flight of the first Space Shuttle in April 1981. For the Soviet Union it was the last manned space flight until Soyuz 21 in June 1976.

Though the Test Project included several scientific missions (including an engineered eclipse of the Sun by Apollo for Soyuz to take photographs of the solar corona), and provided useful engineering information on the synchronization of American and Soviet space technology that would prove useful in the future Shuttle-Mir Program, the primary purpose of the mission was symbolic. ASTP was seen as a symbol of the policy of détente that the two superpowers were beginning to adopt at the time, and as a fitting end to the tension of the Space Race.

Apollo crew

• Thomas Stafford (4) - Commander (CDR)
• Vance Brand (1) - Command Module Pilot (CMP)
• Deke Slayton (1) - Docking Module Pilot (DMP)

*Number in parentheses indicates number of spaceflights by each individual prior to and including this mission.

Jack Swigert had originally been assigned as the Command Module Pilot in the original ASTP prime crew, but prior to the official announcement was removed as punishment for his involvement in the Apollo 15 postage stamp scandal. (Swigert was not involved in the controversial Apollo 15 stamp deal, but in the investigation that followed the scandal he initially denied having any involvement in similar schemes. When evidence against him started to build up he confessed to Deke Slayton and was consequently considered to be undesirable from a public relations viewpoint.)

Backup crew

• Alan Bean
• Ronald Evans
• Jack Lousma

Soyuz crew

• Aleksei Leonov (2) - Soyuz 19 Commander
• Valery Kubasov (3) - Soyuz 19 Engineer

(1) number of spaceflights each crew member has completed, including this mission.

Backup crew

• Anatoli Filipchenko
• Nikolai Rukavishnikov

The CIA suspected one of the Soyuz crew to have been a KGB agent collecting information on U.S. technology.

Mission parameters

• Mass:
  • 14,768 kg (Apollo),
  •   6,790 kg (Soyuz)
• Perigee:
  • 152 km (Apollo),
  • 186 km (Soyuz)
• Apogee:
  • 166 km (Apollo),
  • 220 km (Soyuz)
• Inclination:
  • 51.7° (Apollo),
  • 51.8° (Soyuz)
• Period:
  • 87.6 minutes (Apollo),
  • 88.5 minutes (Soyuz)

Docking

• First docking: July 17, 1975 - 16:19:09 UTC
• Last undocking: July 19, 1975 - 15:26:12 UTC
• Time docked: 1 day, 23 hours, 07 minutes, 03 seconds

Mission highlights

The Apollo-Soyuz Test Project (ASTP) took place in the second half of July 1975 and entailed the docking of an American Apollo spacecraft with the Soviet Soyuz 19 space craft. While the Soyuz was given a mission designation number, officially the Apollo was not given one, as it was intended to represent the entire program and its conclusion. Some histories list this Apollo flight as Apollo 18, but NASA regards this as incorrect although it does use the term itself .

The Apollo flew with the following crew on board: Tom Stafford, Vance Brand and Deke Slayton. The Soyuz 19 flew with Alexei Leonov and Valery Kubasov.

Although the equipment developed for ASTP was only of use as a one-off, the program allowed NASA to maintain a manned space focus following the end of the Apollo and Skylab missions. As the Apollo's Saturn IB launcher and CSM were all surplus material, from the U.S. point of view, ASTP was the most inexpensive manned space program ever mounted.

The Soyuz 19 and Apollo flights launched within seven-and-a-half hours of each other 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, but a delay resulted in its actual occurrence being over the town of Metz in France.

The two spacecraft remained linked for 44 hours, long enough for the three Americans and two Soviets to exchange flags and gifts (including tree seeds which were later planted in the two countries), sign certificates, pay visits to each other's ships, eat together and converse in each other's languages. (Because of Stafford's pronounced drawl when speaking Russian, Leonov later joked that there were actually 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. The Soviets remained in space for five days, the Americans for nine, during which the Soviets also conducted experiments in Earth observation.

While docked, the two crews conducted joint scientific experiments and spent time in each others' craft. After forty-four 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 mission was a great success, both technically and as a public-relations exercise for both sides. For Slayton, it was a personal milestone in his life – he was originally slated to fly the Mercury 7 mission in 1962, but was grounded due to an irregular heartbeat, a condition that grounded him until 1972, and after his reinstatement, required him to wait another three years before flying on Apollo-Soyuz. The Apollo-Soyuz mission was the first mission carrying a handheld programmable pocket calculator (the HP-65); the calculator was programmed to perform several backup computations to partly stand in for the Apollo mission computer in case the latter should malfunction or cease to function altogether (neither of which occurred).

The only serious problem that arose was due to the Apollo crew making a mistake during their preparations for re-entry that resulted in a very rough landing and the capsule filling with noxious fumes. The reaction control system was inadvertently left on during descent, producing uncombusted thruster propellant which was then sucked into the capsule as its pressure equalized with the outside air. Brand briefly lost consciousness, and Slayton reported suffering nausea. As a precaution, the three astronauts were hospitalized for two weeks in Honolulu, Hawaii. During the hospitalization, a lesion was discovered on Slayton's left lung, not believed to have been caused by the fumes. A biopsy determined it was benign.

This was the final flight of an Apollo spacecraft. The Command Module is on display at the California Science Center in Los Angeles, California. In the Smithsonian Institution, National Air and Space Museum in Washington D.C. the original Soyuz module and a mock-up of the Apollo command module are on display (see picture below).

References

1. Although the Apollo flight had no official mission number, it is often referred to as Apollo 18.
2. http://history.nasa.gov/apollo/soyuz.html

External links

• Apollo-Soyuz
• The Partnership: A History of the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project
  – the official NASA history of the mission
• OMWorld's ASTP Docking Module Trainer & Project Introspective Pages
• Apollo-Soyuz Test Project page from NASA History Office
• International rendezvous and docking mission (Apollo-Soyuz/Salyut) 1971 - NASA report (PDF format)
• Apollo/Soyuz test project operational data book. Volume 2: ASTP mass properties data book - NASA report (PDF format)

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• Human spaceflights
• Apollo program
• Soyuz programme
• 1975 in space exploration