USA trifft Sowjetunion | 27 Fakten Apollo Sojus Testprojekt

Video from the channel Mondgeflüster about Apollo–Soyuz, linked on its Above Ten Thousand entry. Duration: 12:02. Language: German. Video type: Documentary.

German-language explainer piece that reviews, in 27 facts, the 1975 Apollo-Soyuz Test Project and closes the channel's series dedicated to the Apollo program. It presents the mission as the first joint project between the United States and the Soviet Union, focused on the docking of two different spacecraft and on scientific experiments.

For the United States it was the last crewed flight until the first Space Shuttle flight, in 1981. The American crew was made up of Tom Stafford as commander, Vance Brand as command module pilot and Deke Slayton as docking module pilot. Slayton, one of the Mercury Seven astronauts, had spent years unable to fly because of heart problems. On the Soviet side, Soyuz 19 carried Alexei Leonov and Valeri Kubasov. Since the two docking systems were not compatible, a system was designed that could act as either the active or the passive part. In addition, an adapter was built that served as an airlock between the two atmospheres: on Apollo, the pressure was 34% of Earth's and on Soyuz, 68%.

Soyuz 19 launched from Baikonur on 15 July 1975, and Apollo followed seven and a half hours later from pad 39B, on Saturn IB SA-210, the last launch of a Saturn rocket. The adapter measured 1.4 m in diameter and 3.15 m in length. The spacecraft docked on 17 July and undocked for good on the 19th, after a maneuver in which Apollo blocked the Sun so Soyuz could photograph the corona. Soyuz landed on 21 July near Arkalyk. During Apollo's splashdown, several unflipped switches let gases from the reaction control system into the cabin, and Brand lost consciousness for about 40 seconds. It was the last parachute splashdown of a US spacecraft until Dragon's COTS-1 mission in 2010.