Preview
Creation Date
1-1-1974
NASA ID
101488
Photographer
N/A
Description
This artist's concept depicts the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project (ASTP) with insets of photographs of three U.S. astronauts (Thomas Stafford, Vance Brand, and Donald Slayton) and two U.S.S.R. cosmonauts (Alexei Leonov and Valeri Kubasov). The objective of the ASTP mission was to accomplish the first docking of a standardized international system, the U.S.'s Apollo spacecraft and the U.S.S.R.'s Soyuz spacecraft, in space. The Soyuz spacecraft was launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome near Tyuratam in the Kazakh, Soviet Socialist Republic, at 8:20 a.m. (EDT) on July 15, 1975. The Apollo spacecraft was launched from Launch Complex 39B, Kennedy Space Center, Florida, at 3:50 p.m. (EDT) on July 15, 1975. The Primary objectives of the ASTP were achieved. They performed spacecraft rendezvous, docking and undocking, conducted intervehicular crew transfer, and demonstrated the interaction of U.S. and U.S.S.R. control centers and spacecraft crews. The mission marked the last use of a Saturn launch vehicle. The Marshall Space Flight Center was responsible for development and sustaining engineering of the Saturn IB launch vehicle during the mission.