The Legacy of the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project

The Apollo-Soyuz crew, a mix of not only two countries but a few "generations" of astronauts. Deke Slayton, on left, waited 14 years for this chance to go to space.

This year is the 50th anniversary of the mission that I believe marked the end of the Space Race. Some think the Space Race ended when the United States "won" by putting the first astronauts on the Moon, but that was more so the "Moon Race", one aspect of the larger Space Race where the Soviet Union and United States tried to outdo each other in space exploration accomplishments. However, in 1975, amid the detente of the 1970s, the two countries decided to set their competition aside and dock each country's most familiar spacecraft together. The United States sent an Apollo spacecraft as a kind of encore of the program that ended three years prior, and the Soviets sent their old reliable, the Soyuz. The reason why it was called the Apollo-Soyuz "Test Project", apparently, was to see whether the two spacecraft could dock by means of an adapter.

Thomas Stafford and Alexei Leonov shake hands. This was not a mere gesture; the two became good friends over the course of the mission and for the rest of their lives.

The adapter worked, and the world witnessed the Apollo astronauts open the hatch to greet the cosmonauts on the other side. While the TV coverage was often dark and grainy, there were some significant moments. I could list many, but I will just choose a few. The cosmonauts and astronauts ate together in space, sharing the cosmonauts' borscht, bread, and apple juice as well as the astronauts' canned turkey, cranberry sauce, and strawberries in a pouch. After a few meals over the course of the mission, the Soviet press asked Alexei Leonov how he liked the Apollo spacecraft and the American food. He replied in English: "The best part of a good dinner is not what you eat, but with whom you eat!" I often think of this quote when I have dinner with family or friends.

Another significant moment during Apollo-Soyuz was a call from President Gerald Ford, where he congratulated the crew and said something that would ultimately come true: "I'm confident that the day is not far off when space missions made possible by this first joint effort will be more or less commonplace." Those words came true particularly after the collapse of the Soviet Union. A cosmonaut traveled aboard the Space Shuttle in 1994, and an astronaut traveled aboard the Soyuz in 1995, marking the progress of the Shuttle-Mir program, where America's Space Shuttle could dock with Russia's Mir space station and each country could send each other's citizens to space on both the Space Shuttle and Soyuz. After the Space Shuttle was decommissioned but the International Space Station (ISS) was completed, American astronauts have ridden on Soyuz flights to the ISS every year. Likewise, since the start of SpaceX's Commercial Crew program in 2020, 6 of 10 flights so far have had a Russian cosmonaut or two, and that fraction is soon to be 7 of 11 when SpaceX Crew-11 launches, hopefully this week.

The Apollo-Soyuz Test Project might not have developed further cooperation between the Soviet Union and the United States, but its legacy really became strong with the collapse of the Soviet Union and the birth of the Russian Federation. Even during this new cold war with Russia since its 2022 invasion of Ukraine (or perhaps its 2014 annexation of Crimea), cooperation between Russian cosmonauts and American astronauts remains strong. Today, Russians, Americans, and space travelers of every nationality greet each other with big hugs when arriving at the ISS. They see the Earth not as 190-something countries but as one universal homeland, and the politics of their countries are left on the ground. It remains to be seen how much China will share its technology and taikonauts with the world. That being said, it would be cool to see an American Crew Dragon dock with a Chinese Shenzhou. If we could make room for international cooperation with our biggest rival last time, we can do it this time.