Meeting in Moscow, NASA and Soviet engineers hammered out compatible docking systems and communication procedures for what would become the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project. The 1975 mission would see an American Apollo capsule dock with a Soviet Soyuz spacecraft in orbit, producing an iconic handshake between astronaut Tom Stafford and cosmonaut Alexei Leonov that symbolized a thaw in Cold War space rivalry.
Barely four years after the Space Race's defining moment — the Apollo 11 moon landing — engineers from two nations that had spent a decade racing each other in secrecy were now sharing blueprints. The technical hurdles were substantial: American and Soviet spacecraft used entirely incompatible docking mechanisms, atmospheric pressures, and electrical systems, requiring the design of an entirely new universal docking adapter.
The political backdrop mattered as much as the engineering. President Nixon and Soviet Premier Brezhnev had signed a broader cooperation agreement the year before as part of détente, and the space mission became its most visible symbol. NASA astronaut Tom Stafford spent months studying Russian, mangling it so charmingly that Soviet engineers joked about a new language: 'Stafford-ese.'
When Apollo and Soyuz finally docked on July 17, 1975, the handshake between Stafford and cosmonaut Alexei Leonov through the open hatch was broadcast to millions worldwide. It would be the last flight of an Apollo spacecraft and a preview of the far deeper US-Russian cooperation that later built the International Space Station.
Key people: Tom Stafford, Alexei Leonov, Richard Nixon