American and Soviet crews were launched today in 1975 for the first handshakes in space between the two superpowers as part of the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project. The Soviet Soyuz with cosmonauts Aleksey Leonov and Valeriy Kubasov was launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome about seven hours before the American Apollo-Saturn 1B with Tom Stafford, Vance Brand and Deke Slayton lifted off from Kennedy Space Center.
Mission Reports
Live coverage: Space station crew back on Earth
Outgoing space station commander Randy Bresnik, joined by Russian cosmonaut Sergey Ryazanskiy and European Space Agency flight engineer Paolo Nespoli, returned to Earth early Thursday after nearly five months in orbit. Their Soyuz MS-05 capsule undocked from the International Space Station at 12:14 a.m. EST (0514 GMT), and landed on the steppe of Kazakhstan at 3:37 a.m. EST (0837 GMT).
