Image: NASA
Apollo-Soyuz Test Project
Mission Profile
| Launch date | 1975-07-15 |
|---|---|
| Launch site | Kennedy Space Center LC-39B / Baikonur Cosmodrome Site 1/5 |
| Launch vehicle | Saturn IB (SA-210) / Soyuz-U |
| Spacecraft | Apollo CSM-111 with Docking Module / Soyuz 7K-TM (Soyuz 19) |
| Target | Low Earth Orbit |
| Type | Crewed |
| End date | 1975-07-24 |
| Recovery | USS New Orleans, Pacific Ocean near Hawaii (Apollo); Soviet recovery forces, Kazakh steppe (Soyuz 19) |
| Cost | US$245 million (NASA-reported cost of the US portion) |
| Mass | Apollo CSM 14,768 kg; Docking Module 2,012 kg; Soyuz 6,790 kg |
| Duration | 9 days, 1 hour, 28 minutes (Apollo); 5 days, 22 hours, 31 minutes (Soyuz 19) |
| Partners | NASA, Soviet Academy of Sciences / Soviet space program |
Overview
The Apollo-Soyuz Test Project turned Cold War rivals into orbital partners. Born of the 1972 US–Soviet space cooperation agreement, it paired the last Apollo spacecraft with a specially modified Soyuz 7K-TM. On 15 July 1975, Soyuz 19 lifted off from Baikonur at 12:20 UTC carrying Alexei Leonov and Valery Kubasov; seven and a half hours later Tom Stafford, Vance Brand and Deke Slayton — finally flying at 51, fourteen years after his Mercury grounding — followed on the final Saturn IB from Kennedy's LC-39B. Between them rode a purpose-built Docking Module, both airlock and adapter, mating Apollo's hardware to the new androgynous APAS-75 docking system. The craft docked on 17 July at 16:09 UTC, and roughly three hours later Stafford and Leonov clasped hands through the open hatch — the first international handshake in space, watched by a global television audience. Over nearly two days of joint operations the crews exchanged visits, shared meals, ran joint experiments and staged an artificial solar eclipse, with Apollo occulting the Sun for Soyuz's cameras. Soyuz 19 landed on 21 July; Apollo splashed down near Hawaii on 24 July, marred by toxic nitrogen tetroxide fumes entering the cabin during descent, which briefly hospitalized the crew in Honolulu.
Crew
Tom Stafford
Commander (Apollo)
Fourth flight; veteran of Gemini 6A, Gemini 9A and Apollo 10
Vance D. Brand
Command Module Pilot (Apollo)
First flight; later commanded three Shuttle missions
Deke Slayton
Docking Module Pilot (Apollo)
Mercury Seven astronaut flying at last, aged 51, after a 13-year medical grounding
Alexei Leonov
Commander (Soyuz 19)
First spacewalker (Voskhod 2, 1965); originally slated to command Soyuz 11
Valery Kubasov
Flight Engineer (Soyuz 19)
Reassigned from Soyuz 11 days before that flight after a suspect medical X-ray
Key Milestones
1975-07-15
Soyuz 19 launches from Baikonur at 12:20 UTC; Apollo follows from Kennedy LC-39B at 19:50 UTC
1975-07-17
Docking at 16:09 UTC; Stafford and Leonov exchange the first international handshake in space
1975-07-19
Final separation after joint experiments, a re-docking test and an artificial solar eclipse staged by Apollo
1975-07-21
Soyuz 19 lands safely on the Kazakh steppe
1975-07-24
Apollo splashes down near Hawaii — the last splashdown of a US crew until Crew Dragon in 2020
Key Achievements
First international crewed space mission and first docking between spacecraft of two nations
First international handshake in orbit, between Tom Stafford and Alexei Leonov
Proved the androgynous APAS-75 docking system, ancestor of today's international docking standards
Final flight of an Apollo spacecraft and the last US crewed launch until STS-1 in 1981
Conducted joint science including an artificial solar eclipse created by the Apollo spacecraft
Legacy & Significance
Apollo-Soyuz was détente made tangible: two propaganda machines that had raced each other to the Moon instead trained in each other's facilities, learned each other's languages and flew a common mission. Its androgynous docking interface evolved into the APAS systems used by Shuttle–Mir and the ISS, and the working relationships it built lay dormant through the late Cold War before re-emerging as the Shuttle–Mir program and ultimately the International Space Station partnership — the direct institutional descendant of that 1975 handshake.
