The first link-up of United States astronauts and Soviet cosmonauts in space took place on July 17, when an Apollo and a Soyuz spacecraft successfully docked and the crews met each other through a special docking module.
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Plans for such a link-up (known as the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project, or ASTP) had been agreed by President Nixon and Mr. Kosygin (the Soviet Prime Minister) during the former's visit to the Soviet Union in May 1972, in the context of a programme to "carry out projects for developing compatible rendezvous and docking systems of the U.S. and Soviet manned spacecraft and stations in order to enhance the safety of manned flights in space and to provide the opportunity for conducting joint scientific experiments in the future". Over the next three years joint training took place in both the United States and the Soviet Union, and the docking module was perfected.
Soyuz 19 was launched at 12.20 Greenwich Mean Time (15.20 local time) on July 15 from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan (the launching being shown live on Soviet television), while 7½ hours later-at 19.50 GMT (15.50 local time)-the Apollo was launched from Cape Canaveral (Florida) by means of a Saturn 1-B rocket and shortly afterwards the docking module was linked to the nose of the Apollo. On July 16 the Soyuz moved into an almost circular orbit at a height of 225 kilometres (140 miles), while on the same and the following days the Apollo, by means of a series of adjustments, moved into a similar orbit. Meanwhile, on July 15, the pressure in the Soyuz was lowered to 10 pounds per square inch and the oxygen content of the air in the spacecraft was doubled to 40 per cent.
The actual link-up-with the Apollo taking the "active role-took place on July 17 at 16.12 GMT while the two craft were over Europe, after the final approach had been effected by manual control. Three hours later General Stafford and Colonel Leonov exchanged greetings in the docking module, and then General Stafford and Mr. Slayton entered the Soyuz, where they remained for over two hours. In the course of July 18 Colonel Leonov and Mr. Brand passed each other in the docking module on their way to the Apollo and the Soyuz respectively, while later on the same day General Stafford again visited the Soyuz and Mr. Kubasov spent some hours in the Apollo. During these exchanges, a number of scientific experiments were carried out, including the smelting of alloys in conditions of weightlessness in a special furnace and (ii) a "microbial exchange test" to obtain information about the transmission of microbes on spacemen's bodies.
On July 19 the two craft undocked, and while the Apollo was some 200 metres behind the Soyuz the Soviet crew took pictures of the sun's corona, using Apollo as an "occulting" device to simulate a total eclipse of the sun; after half an hour the two craft again docked, on this occasion with the Soyuz adopting the "active " role, and then finally, at 15.26 GMT, the Soyuz and the Apollo undocked for the second time. As the two craft began moving apart, the Soyuz crew carried out an "ultra-violet absorption" experiment to measure the concentration of atomic oxygen and nitrogen in space, and then at 18.36 GMT the firing of a rocket separated the Apollo from the Soyuz
After separation, the crews of both spacecraft continued independent programmes; the Soyuz descent module landed at 10.51 GMT on July 21 in a predetermined area 54 kilometres north-east of Arkalyk (Kazakhstan) (the landing being broadcast live on Soviet television), while the Apollo command module splashed down at 21.18 GMT on July 24 in the Pacific Ocean some 300 miles west of Hawaii.
While it was expected that the Soviet Soyuz research programme would continue in the future, the current U.S. flight was the last to use the Apollo craft, and the next manned U.S. space flight would involve the use of the "space shuttle" which would first fly in 1979 and details of which were first given in 1972.
(U.S. Information Service -Soviet Embassy Press Department, London - New York Times - International Herald Tribune - Times)
This article comes from Keesings Worldwide Online
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