The Apollo-Soyuz Test Project Brought Soviet & NASA Astronauts Together

Some 140 miles above France, American astronauts opened a spacecraft hatch and found themselves face to face with cosmonauts from the Soviet Union.

- BECKY FERREIRA

Some 140 miles above France, American astronauts opened a spacecraft hatch and found themselves face to face with cosmonauts from the Soviet Union. "Glad to see you," Col. Alexei Leonov spoke in accented English to Brig. Gen. Thomas Stafford of NASA.

"Ah, hello, very glad to see you," General Stafford responded in his own accented Russian. The two men then shook hands.

Today, Russian and American astronauts routinely share rides to the International Space Station, no matter the geopolitical conflict that divides their nations. But in the summer of 1975, seeing two men from rival nations greet each other in orbit across a bridge between their docked spacecraft was a powerful and unprecedented gesture witnessed by millions on the world spinning below. The handshake, which occurred 50 years ago this July 17, defined the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project, the first international human spaceflight.

That simple symbol of partnership between bitter competitors remains an enduring legacy of the mission. "It's amazing to think that two diametrically opposed countries with different systems and cultures, essentially ready to destroy each other, can somehow cooperate and do this highly technical, complicated mission," said Asif Siddiqi, a professor of history at Fordham University and an expert on Russian space history.

A generation after the orbital handclasp, the Soviets and the United States would come together to build the ISS. The aging space outpost's days are finite, and there are no immediate plans for Russia and the US to sustain their cooperation in human spaceflight. The US also sees itself as competing with China for dominance in space. But experts like Siddiqi see reasons for hope on the 50th anniversary of the Apollo-Soyuz mission.