[APOLLO SOYUZ TEST MISSION OVERVIEW]

Tom Stafford deck Slayton Vance brand Alexa leonov and Valerie kubasov the five men who made space history with the successful joint flight of Apollo and sayou spacecraft from the Soviet Union's launch complex in the province of Kazakhstan the sayou spacecraft was launched first then 7 and a half hours later the Apollo aboard a Saturn 1B launch vehicle blasted off from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida into Earth orbit within 10 minutes the first major step taken by the Apollo crew was to separate from its second stage launch vehicle and make a transposition maneuver the Apollo slowly moves in on the docking module which was contained in an adapter on the forward portion of the launch vehicle using the probe and drog system utilized on all previous Apollo Skylab flights first there was a soft docking in which three capture latches hook up and moments later 12 latches were activated to secure and seal the two vehicles together then the extraction the docking module some 10 ft in length and 5T in diameter is the airlock tunnel between the Apollo and saus which permits transfer of the crws in addition the docking module contains scientific experiment packages which the Astron Nots activated during the later stages of the flight right on schedule the sighting and Rendevous of the saou spacecraft takes place a little less than 2 days after the launch the altitude about 140 Mi above the Atlantic Ocean just east of Brazil using a tea Target Vance bran Pilots the Apollo toward the sa this is the first flight test of a universal docking system the Soviets built their unit Rockwell International built the American system and while different in some aspects they are compatible the Apollo pilot is looking out of the left Rendevous window of his spacecraft at close range he cannot see the actual docking equipment only the target Apollo Commander Tom Stafford followed by deak Slayton entered the docking module Stafford confirmed that the docking latches functioned and the two spacecraft were sealed later he began to remove the hatch simultaneously leonov was removing the saou hatch Stafford and Slayton had been in the docking module approximately 30 minutes before the hatches were open it takes that time to pressurize from 5 PSI to the 10 psi of the saus and to also obtain a two gas nitrogen oxygen atmosphere fix television cameras in the docking module beamed back to Earth via the at6 satellite the historic meeting of the American and Soviet Spacemen and the handshakes first leonov with Stafford then leonov with Slayton the space shared their food all of the Americans had eaten borch but this was the first time they had eaten borch from a tube a tube labeled vodka during the joint operations they shared food but each admitted later that they preferred their own early in the space program American astronaut crws dine from plastic bags containing dehydrated or freeze-dried meals reconstituted with water this was improved in the Apollo spacecraft which had hot water and warm meals and in the long duration missions of Skylab which had an oven the meals were similar to Earthbound TV dinners in their first get together the American and Soviet Crews exchanged a variety of gifts leonov had special medallions for Stafford Slayton and brand and there were tie clasps replicas of the Apollo saou spacecraft docked together and down on Earth for the first time millions of Television viewing Soviet citizens were watching the effects of weightlessness everything floats leonov lets the Ian drift in space naturally there were more than social exchanges during the two days of linkup the crews performed five joint experiments held a press conference and generally checked out the characteristics of both spacecraft systems during the joint operations the Soviet crew spoke English while the Americans spoke Russian and one crew member always remained in his spacecraft while the others worked or ate their meals in the other spacecraft Stafford had three times previously flown in space both leonov and kubasov had also flown in space but for Slayton and brand they were experiencing weightlessness for the first time for the National Archives of both countries the spacecraft commanders Stafford and leonov signed flight certificates attesting to the success of the Apollo saou test project all aspects of the flight were successful and all Mission requirements were met Stafford explains flight controls and systems procedures for the Apollo spacecraft with leonov Stafford is in the foreground middle seat while the Soviet Cosmonaut takes the left seat which is normally the position of the spacecraft Commander one of the joint experiments was for the Apollo to fly an eclipse with the sun while the SA crew photographed the resulting light phenomenon the Apollo spacecraft following separation at the conclusion of the two days of joint operations had just completed the eclipse maneuver and both Crews filmed each other as the Apollo flew around the saus the saus returned to its Earth landing and the Apollo orbited for another 5 days performing experiments in the fields of Earth Resources astronomy manufacturing and biomedicine before it returned to a successful Landing Northeast of Hawaii