Thread by @People_Of_Space

45 uears ago yesterday-

On July 15th, 1975, the United States & the Soviet Union launched two rockets on a brave new mission.

These rockets weren’t launched on Cold War military missions. Rather, they lifted off on the first international mission in space. #space

The Apollo-Soyuz Test Project was part of the détente between the US and the USSR in the later years of the Cold War.

American astronauts Thomas Stafford, Vance Brand, and Deke Slayton launched on a Saturn IB rocket with the Apollo CSM and docking adaptor needed for the mission.

Slayton was one of the original Mercury 7 astronauts but was sidelined due to a medical condition.

Slayton served as the director of flight crew operations for almost a decade from 1963 to 1972 and helped shape the crews of NASA’S missions during Gemini and Apollo.

Soviet Cosmonauts Alexey Leonov and Valeri Kubasov were the Soyuz crew and launched slightly before their American counterparts. Both crews are pictured in a joint crew photo, along with models of their spacecraft.

This picture of Slayton and Leonov is one of my favorites. Note how the crew portrait NASA emblem is the "Meatball" logo, while the one Slayton is wearing in space had moved to the "Worm."

Pictures- @NASA #thewormisback #apollo #apollosoyuz