When Apollo Intercepted Soyuz

Video from the channel Dark Space about Apollo–Soyuz, linked on its Above Ten Thousand entry. Duration: 9:37. Language: English. Video type: Documentary.

Documentary about the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project (ASTP), the first international crewed mission, in which a US Apollo spacecraft docked with a Soviet Soyuz in the middle of the Cold War and which is presented as a symbol of the end of the space race.

It reviews the space race since Sputnik in 1957 and the first attempts at cooperation: the 1962 Dryden-Blagonravov agreement, which stalled after Kennedy's assassination and Khrushchev's removal. In 1970 Mstislav Keldysh replied to a letter from NASA administrator Thomas Paine, and in 1972 the two countries signed a cooperation agreement for the peaceful use of outer space. The crews visited each other from July 1973 onward and each learned the other's language.

The Soyuz lifted off from Baikonur and the Apollo from Kennedy Space Center on 15 July 1975. Two days later they docked using a module built in the United States, about 3 m long and 1.5 m in diameter, which also served as an airlock between the two atmospheres. Stafford and Leonov shook hands over France. There was an exchange of flags and seeds, five joint experiments (including an artificial solar eclipse) and several redocking maneuvers. The Soyuz remained in orbit two more days and the Apollo five. In 1977 an asteroid was named 2228 Soyuz-Apollo.