Adversaries’ Handshake in Space Leads to Decades of Cooperation

July 15, 2025

This May 1974 painting by Alexei Leonov presents the Soviet Soyuz spacecraft docking with the American Apollo. In addition to his service as a Soviet Air Force pilot and as a cosmonaut, Leonov became an accomplished artist curing his childhood. Photo credit: NASA

By Bob Granath

In the summer of 1975, 50 years ago, millions around the world watched an event that would have been unthinkable only a few years earlier. An American Apollo spacecraft docked with a Soviet Soyuz capsule leading to a handshake in Earth orbit. It was a symbol of “détente” between the Cold War superpowers. The Apollo Soyuz Test Project was the first international space mission leading to extensive cooperation in the years to come.

“We’d worked on it, (the rendezvous) very hard for two and a half years,” Tom Stafford said. Apollo commander Stafford, left, and Soyuz commander Alexei Leonov participate in a simulation of the Apollo Soyuz mission. Photo credit: NASA

Détente is French for the relaxation of strained relations, especially political. In this case, the term referred to a period of general easing of geopolitical tensions between the Soviet Union and the United States.

The historic greeting between Apollo commander Tom Stafford, a general in the U.S. Air Force, and Soyuz commander Alexei Leonov, a general in the Soviet Air Force, brought together two adversaries. The two spent the first half or their careers learning to oppose the other. Their collaboration would lead to a life-long friendship.

A formal proposal for a joint piloted mission begin in October 1970 when NASA Administrator Thomas Paine wrote to Soviet Academy of Sciences President Mstislav Keldysh suggesting a cooperative space effort. Early the next year, President Richard Nixon’s foreign policy adviser, Henry Kissinger, provided instructions to NASA’s acting administrator, George Low, following the resignation of Paine.

In Moscow on May 24, 1972, President Richard Nixon, seated left, and Premier Alexei Kosygin sign the Cooperation in the Fields of Science and Technology agreement between the governments of the United States and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. The accord included the Apollo Soyuz test Project. Photo Credit: NASA

“As long as you stick to space, do anything you want to do,” Kissinger said. “You are free to commit. I want you to tell your counterparts in Moscow that the President has sent you on this mission.”

Many observers considered a joint human spaceflight between the two nations unlikely. The United States was well into its Apollo lunar landing missions. In 1971, the Soviets launched their first Earth orbiting space station, Salyut 1. Nevertheless, in Moscow on May 24, 1972, President Nixon and Premier Alexei Kosygin signed an agreement for “Cooperation in the Fields of Science and Technology.” The accord committed both nations to the Apollo Soyuz Test Project in 1975.

Details, Details

Cosmonaut Alexei Leonov, right, talks with Boris Chertok in 1992. Photo credit: Chertok’s Archive

According to Boris Chertok, one of the founding fathers of the Russian space program, concerns went beyond controlling a spacecraft. America’s Moon landings resulted in Soviet citizens realizing their space rivals had passed them in the “Race for Space.”

“Our people had grown accustomed to the cascade of achievements in our cosmonautics,” he wrote in his book, Rockets and People: The Moon Race published in 2009 by the NASA History Division. “The Americans’ brilliant success (of landing men on the Moon) was a complete surprise (to the Russian people). During the Cold War, the Soviet mass media made no mention of (America’s) human lunar program. All of this was strictly classified.”

A challenge for officials of both the U.S. and U.S.S.R., was opening aspects of their programs that, previously, were closed. The Apollo crew was permitted to inspect crew training sites and launch facilities along with an unprecedented sharing of information. The Soviets usually kept details of their program secret from the Soviet people and the world. But, this mission would be different in many respects.

This cutaway illustration by Davis Meltzer depicts the moment the two international crews meet in the docking module. Both Soviet crewmen are in the Soyuz orbital module. Tom Stafford and Alexei Leonov are shaking hands through the hatchway with Deke Slayton nearby. The third American, Vance Brand, is in the Apollo command module. Photo credit: NASA

“This was the first launch of any space mission broadcast live on television in the Soviet Union,” Leonov said.

Chertok noted that their defense minister, Dmitriy Ustinov, provided a clear command to Valentin Glushko, program manager for the Soviet space program during that time.

“I request that you personally take over supervision of this project,” Ustinov said to Glushko. “This work must be performed brilliantly. The Americans are going to study our work intensely and literally examine it as if it were under a microscope. You must keep a firm hold on our technical and ideological positions.”

A view of the Soyuz spacecraft as seen from the Apollo during rendezvous on July 17, 1975. Photo credit: NASA

Mistrust between the two nation’s space programs went beyond political systems. According to a 1976 report of the U.S. government Committee on Aeronautical and Space Sciences, “Both sides had severe criticisms of the other side’s engineering.”

Soviet spacecraft were designed with automation in mind to minimize risk due to human error. This was achieved by having fewer manual controls requiring human operators. Americans, such as Johnson Space Center director Chris Kraft, had concerns.

“We in NASA rely on redundant components,” he said. “If an instrument fails during flight, our crews switch to another in an attempt to continue the mission. Each Soyuz component, however, is designed for a specific function. If one fails, the cosmonauts land as soon as possible. The Apollo vehicle also relied on astronaut piloting to a much greater extent than did the Soyuz machine.”

Eventually, Glynn Lunney, NASA’s manager of the Apollo Soyuz Test Program, warned American astronauts against expressing dissatisfaction with Soviet spacecraft systems. Agency leaders worried criticisms of their technology might result of them withdrawing from the mission.

During the Apollo Soyuz rendezvous on July 17, 1975, the American Apollo, with the docking module attached, is seen from the Soviet Soyuz spacecraft. Photo credit: USSR Academy of Sciences

Technical hurdles included how to match two differently designed docking systems. American and Soviet engineers settled their differences for the docking of the two spacecraft in meetings taking place in Houston and Moscow between June and December 1971. The result was the Androgynous Peripheral Attach System (APAS) – a docking module between the two ships that would allow both crews to transfer between the Apollo and Soyuz spacecraft.

The connecting module was designed as both an airlock and docking system. After launch, the docking module had to be retrieved from the Saturn 1B rocket’s upper stage, as was the case in retrieving the lunar modules on the Moon landing missions.

One end of the docking module was attached to the Apollo using the same connecting mechanism used on the lunar module and the Skylab space station, while its other end had the APAS docking collar, which Soyuz carried in place of the standard Soyuz/Salyut system. The connecting module also allowed for compensating for the differences in cabin pressurization between Apollo and Soyuz.

In this March 1975 photograph, the prime crews of the joint Apollo Soyuz mission are U.S. astronaut Tom Stafford, standing left, and Soviet cosmonaut Alexei Leonov. Seated, from the left are astronauts Deke Slayton and Vance Brand, along with cosmonaut Valery Kubasov. Note that the American astronauts are wearing the mission patch to say “Apollo Soyuz.” But the Soviet cosmonauts display it to say, “Soyuz Apollo.” Photo credit: NASA

Cold Warriors Become Lasting Friends

Both nations assigned veteran astronauts and cosmonauts to the mission such as Weatherford, Oklahoma native Stafford. He was a 1952 graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy. After being commissioned as an officer in the U.S. Air Force, he flew the F-86 Sabre jets before becoming a test pilot. In 1958, Stafford attended the Air Force Test Pilot School at Edwards Air Force Base, California, where he finished first in his class. Stafford was one of nine pilots selected in 1962 as part of NASA’s second group of astronauts.

NASA Kennedy Space Center’s Director of Shuttle Management and Operations, Jay Honeycutt, left, leads a tour of the spaceport for cosmonauts Alexei Leonov and Valery Kubasov, as well as astronaut Tom Stafford on July 26, 1990. Photo credit: SpaceAgeChronicle.com/Bob Granath

Stafford flew aboard Gemini VI in 1965 and Gemini IX the next year. In 1969, he commanded Apollo 10, the second crewed mission to orbit the Moon. He and Gene Cernan became the first to fly an Apollo lunar module in orbit around the Moon, descending to an altitude of nine miles. In June 1975, Stafford was offered command of the Air Force Flight Test Center at Edwards. He assumed the assignment on November 1975. In this role, he oversaw the Air Force and NASA test facilities at Edwards along with test ranges in Utah and Nevada.

Born in West Siberia, Leonov began earning money as a child by drawing flowers for friends and later began painting landscapes on canvasses. In 1948, his family relocated to Kaliningrad, a Russian exclave between Lithuania and Poland.

Leonov joined a preparatory flying school in Kremenchug, Ukraine, and performed his first solo flight in May 1955. He became a military fighter pilot while attending the Chuguev Higher Air Force Pilots School, graduating in October 1957. Leonov was transferred to East Germany in 1959 as part of a reconnaissance regiment. A year later, he was among 20 Soviet Air Forces pilots selected to be part of the first group of cosmonauts. During the Voskhod 2 mission in March 1965, Leonov became the first person to walk in space.

In addition to his role as a cosmonaut, Alexei Leonov is an accomplished artist. He displays his sketch of astronaut Tom Stafford. Photo credit: NASA

During an interview for NASA’s Oral History Project on Oct. 15, 1997, Stafford spoke of his continuing bond with his Russian comrade.

“He (Leonov) is like a brother to me now,” he said. “We had some wonderful experiences there, traveling in the western part of the Soviet Union and Russia. (More recently), I had him come down to Florida. Leonov brought (cosmonaut Vladimir) Titov, and we spent four days fishing and snorkeling.”

Docking module pilot Deke Slayton was born in Sparta, Wisconsin. He joined the U.S. Army Air Force during World War II, flying combat missions in Europe and the Pacific. After the war, he earned a bachelor’s degree in aeronautical engineering from University of Minnesota in 1949. While working for Boeing as an aeronautical engineer, he joined the Minnesota Air National Guard, later moving to the U.S. Air Force, attending their Test Pilot School in 1955.

Deke Slayton, left, Alexei Leonov, center, and Tom Stafford are in the Soyuz during the docking mission on July 17, 1975. Photo credit: NASA

Slayton was selected as one of the Original Mercury Seven astronauts in 1959. While training for the second orbital Mercury mission, he was grounded due to an erratic heart rate. He served as NASA’s director of Flight Crew Operations and later returned to full flight status clearing the way for his participation in the Apollo Soyuz Test Project.

Command module pilot Vance Brand grew up in Longmont, Colorado. In 1953, he was presented a bachelor’s degree in business and, in 1960, a bachelor’s degree in aeronautical engineering, both from the University of Colorado at Boulder. In 1964, he earned a master’s in business administration at University of California, Los Angeles.

Valery Kubasov is at work in the Soyuz spacecraft. Photo credit: NASA

Brand was a commissioned officer and naval aviator with the U.S. Marine Corps in 1953. He went on to work as a civilian for Lockheed as a flight test engineer on the U.S. Navy’s P-3 Orion aircraft. In 1963, Brand graduated from the U.S. Naval Test Pilot School. He went on to be one of the 19 astronauts selected by NASA in 1966. In addition to Apollo Soyuz, he later commanded three Space Shuttle missions.

Flight engineer Valery Kubasov was born in Vladimir Oblast, Russia. He graduated from the Moscow Aviation Institute in 1958 as an aerospace engineer and reported to work at the bureau led by Soviet Chief Designer Sergei Korolev. His work included design of the Voskhod spacecraft. In 1966, he was accepted into the newly established civilian cosmonaut corps.

The five-day Soyuz 6 flight in October 1969 was Kubasov’s first space mission. During the mission, three Soviet spacecraft were in orbit at the same time. His third space mission was Soyuz 36 in 1980. During this flight, the Soyuz transported a crew that included Bertalan Farkas, the first Hungarian astronaut.

English and Русский (Russian)

Flight crews of both countries received extensive training in the language of the other. From the beginning, they decided that the American crew would communicate with their Soviet counterparts in Russian, and the cosmonauts would reply in English.

The Soviet Soyuz lifts off from a launch pad at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in on July 15, 1975. Photo Credit: USSR Academy of Sciences

“It was a symbolic gesture, but it was also important psychologically,” Leonov wrote in his book Two Sides of the Moon that he co-authored in 2004 with NASA astronaut David Scott. “We had to understand how our partners in space were thinking.”

The night before the two launches, Stafford telephoned Leonov.

“How is everything going?” the American commander asked.

“Everything is going as smoothly as a peeled egg,” Leonov responded: “How about you?”

A Saturn 1B rocket launches from Launch Complex 39B, at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center at on July 15, 1975. Photo Credit: NASA

“As smoothly as three peeled eggs,” Stafford said. “See you in space.”

One of the most complex challenges was coordinating launches between two continents. At 3:20 p.m. Moscow time (8:20 a.m. EDT) on July 15, 1975, Soyuz lifted off with Leonov and Kubasov from the Baikonur Cosmodrome on the grassland plains of Kazakhstan. More than 10,000 miles away and seven and a half hours later, Stafford, Slayton and Brand rode a Saturn 1B rocket into orbit. They lifted off from an ocean-side launch pad at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 2:50 p.m. EDT.

Soon after the Apollo liftoff, the Americans made contact with their Soviet counterparts.

“Miy nakhoditsya na orbite,” Brand said in Russian, meaning: “We are in orbit.”

“Vyo normalno,” Stafford added. “(Everything is OK).”

Leonov said, “It was an exhilarating feeling.”

‘We have capture’

After two days, the two spacecraft approached each other.

Activity is ongoing in the Mission Operations Control Room at the Johnson Space Center during the Apollo Soyuz docking. The large television monitor shows an interior view of the Soyuz orbital module. Neil Hutchinson (right hand to chin) is the flight director. Photo credit: NASA

“As our orbit took both vehicles high above the European continent, I suddenly caught sight of the American spacecraft’s beacon,” Leonov said. “It looked like a bright star.”

“Dobroye utro,” Slayton said. “(Good morning).”

“The maneuvers that followed bringing the vehicles closer and closer, seemed like chorography from a graceful celestial ballet,” Leonov said.

“We’d worked on it, (the rendezvous) very hard for two and a half years,” Stafford said during a July 1990 presentation with Leonov and Kubasov to a luncheon of the National Space Club-Florida Committee. “I remember when, flying the Apollo, we came up for the rendezvous and the docking — everything went great.”

“We have capture.” Stafford reported to American mission control at 11:09 a.m. EDT on July 17, 1975. Millions watched on television, as an American Apollo successfully docked with a Soviet Soyuz capsule.

“Tom, you are welcome on board Soyuz,” said Alexei Leonov. Tom Stafford, foreground, shakes hands with Leonov on July 17, 1975. Photo credit: NASA Television

“We opened the hatch,” Stafford said. “With my ‘fluent’ Russian with a ‘slight’ Oklahoma accent, I said, ‘hello,’ to Alexei and we both had big smiles on our faces.”

“My biggest impression was when the hatch opened, we saw the face of Tom Stafford,” Leonov said. “It was a very big moment, not only in this flight, but in my and Valery’s lives!”

“Tovafich!” said Stafford. “(Friend)”

“Tom, you are welcome on board Soyuz,” said Leonov. “Happy to see you.”

Following greetings between the five crewmembers, leaders of both the Soviet Union and Unites States offered greetings.

“The whole world is watching with rapt attention and admiration for your joint activities,” said General Secretary Leonid Brezhnev. “Détente and positive changes in Soviet-American relations have made possible the first international spaceflight.”

Deke Slayton and Alexei Leonov are together inside the Soyuz orbital module. Photo credit: NASA

When U.S. President Gerald Ford spoke to the crew, he asked what guidance 51-year-old Slayton would have for aspiring astronauts.

“As the world’s oldest space rookie, do you have any advice for young people who hope to fly on future space missions?” he said.

“Decide what you want to do then never give up until you’ve done it,” Slayton answered.

Before the final undocking on July 19, the crews completed four transfer operations between the Apollo and Soyuz. The two spacecraft moved to a station-keeping distance and a joint ultraviolet absorption experiment was performed involving a complicated series of orbital maneuvers. Additionally, another experiments involved photographing a solar eclipse.

Leonov and Kubasov fired their retrorockets to begin their return to a landing in Kazakhstan on July 21.

In the Oval Office of the White House on Sept. 7, 1975, President Gerald Ford examines the Soyuz spacecraft model depicting the docking of the Apollo and Soyuz. From the left are Valery Kubasov, Alexei Leonov, Ford, Tom Stafford, Deke Slayton and Vance Brand. Photo credit: NASA

“At 1:40 p.m. (Moscow time), cameras aboard rescue helicopters began to pick up pictures of our spacecraft descending gracefully under a billowing parachute,” Leonov wrote:

Stafford, Slayton and Brand splashed down in the Pacific Ocean on July 24. The crew of the helicopter carrier U.S.S. New Orleans recovered them and their Apollo spacecraft.

After the joint mission, all five extensively toured both the Soviet Union and United States. Leonov wrote about their warm reception at the White House.

“In Washington, together with our families, we were invited to a meeting in the Oval Office with President Gerald Ford,” Leonov wrote. “We spent most of the afternoon together. It was a great honor.”

‘More Cooperation is Foreseeable’

Kennedy Space Center Director of Public Affairs Chuck Hollinshead, far left, moderates a news conference at the Florida spaceport. From the left are Hollinshead, along with NASA astronauts Tom Stafford, Vance Brand, Deke Slayton, an unidentified Russian Interpreter, former cosmonaut and chief of cosmonaut training, Vladimir Shatalov, cosmonauts Alexei Leonov and Valery Kubasov. Photo credit: NASA

At a Kennedy Space Center news conference, Stafford recalled that the success of the Apollo Soyuz Test Project required both nations to overcome problems as simple as the difference in English and metric measurements and as complex as hydraulically and electrically operated docking systems. When asked about the possibility of future joint missions, Stafford expressed the belief “more cooperation is foreseeable.”

“Some of the proposals have been to have a Soviet cosmonaut fly aboard the Space Shuttle and to have an American astronaut be launched on a Soyuz and go to the (Russian) space station Mir,” he said. “Toward the end of the decade (of the 1990s) we could have a docking of the Space Shuttle with Mir.”

On June 29, 1995, STS-71 commander, Robert (Hoot) Gibson, shakes the hand of Mir-18 commander Vladimir Dezhurov. The historic event took place two and half weeks prior to the 20th anniversary of a similar in-space greeting between cosmonauts and astronauts participating in the Apollo Soyuz Test Project in 1975. Photo credit: NASA

With the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, cooperation accelerated. In February 1994, the Space Shuttle Discovery lifted off for the STS-60 mission with five NASA astronauts and Russian cosmonaut Sergei Krikalev. Later, STS-63 achieved the first rendezvous between an American Space Shuttle and Russia’s Space Station Mir. Flown in February 1995, that crew included Russian cosmonaut Vladimir Titov.

A month later, U.S. astronaut Norman Thagard launched from Baikonur with two Russian cosmonauts to Mir aboard Soyuz TM-21, spending 115 days aboard. He returned to Earth when the Space Shuttle Atlantis became the first to dock with Mir for the STS-71 mission in June and July 1995. That was the first American spacecraft to join with a Russian vehicle since the Apollo Soyuz Test Project 20 years earlier. As hatches between Atlantis and Mir opened, STS-71 commander Robert (Hoot) Gibson shook hands with Mir-18 commander Vladimir Dezhurov.

On Dec. 10, 1998, STS-88 commander Bob Cabana, left, and Russian cosmonaut Sergei Krikalev prepare to move from the Space Shuttle Endeavour’s airlock into the International Space Station’s Unity module. Photo credit: NASA

Altogether, between 1994 and 1998, there were 12 Space Shuttle missions involving the space station Mir, including seven U.S. astronauts who experienced long-term stays conducting science experiments aboard the orbiting space station.

In December 1998, the largest engineering project in human history began when the United States and Russia began construction of the International Space Station. The crew of STS-88 delivered the first American module, the Unity node, mating it to the Functional Cargo Block or Zarya module, launched by Russia Nov. 20, 1998. After spacewalks to make electrical connections between the two modules, Space Shuttle commander Bob Cabana along with Russian cosmonaut Sergei Krikalev opened the hatch and, together, floated into the new space station on Dec. 10.

The Soyuz, left, and the Apollo approach prior to docking on July 17, 1975 in this composite photograph. It was the first-ever rendezvous between spacecraft from the Soviet Union and United States. .Photo credit: NASA/USSR Academy of Sciences/SpaceAgeChronicle.com

“Our mission paved the way for future cooperation in space,” Leonov said after the Apollo Soyuz Test Project.

Indeed it did. Americans and Russians, along with astronauts from many other nations have been working side-by-side aboard the International Space Station since 2000.

On the date of the launces of the Soviet Soyuz and American Apollo, the two nation’s postal services issued stamps with designs from both countries. The first day of issue for the commemoratives was in Moscow for the Russian versions and NASA’s Kennedy Space Center for the American stamps. Photo credit: SpaceAgeChronicle.com

Apollo Soyuz Partnership Leads to Joint Stamp Issue

By Bob Granath

Collaboration between the United States and Soviet Union during the Apollo Soyuz Test Project included joint postage stamp issues. The idea for a cooperative effort began in July 1973. Gordon Morison, manager of the U.S. Postal Service’s Philatelic Affairs Division, submitted a proposal to Senior Assistant Postmaster General Benjamin Bailar. The suggestion was to create stamps for both nations to commemorate the linkup in space.

As the U.S. and Soviet postal agencies began working together to design the stamps, artists in both nations were recruited. Russian painter Anatoly Aksamit developed art depicting the Apollo and Soyuz spacecraft as they approached in Earth orbit. Renowned American illustrator Robert McCall, who previously designed the artwork for the 1971 Space Achievement and 1974 Skylab stamps, was selected to design the U.S. image depicting the two spacecraft after the docking.

Both nations issued the designs with the difference being the writing was in that nation’s language. The American stamps sold for 10 cents and the Russian version for 12 kopecks. The first day of issue for the stamps was launch day, July 15, 1975, in Moscow for the Soviet versions and the Kennedy Space Center for the American stamps.