THE FLIGHT OFAPOLLO-SOYUZ, named for being the first conjoined mission between The United States and Foreign space programs, The Apollo and The Soyuz 19, was an overall 10 day mission. The Apollo launched at 3:50 pm on July 15, 1975 from Kennedy Space Center's launch complex 39. The Soyuz 19 took off from The Baykonur Cosmodrome at 8:20 am July 15, 1975. The two crews performed many experiments side by side over a two-day period. When they separated, The Apollo remained in space for 6 days. Soyuz returned to Earth approximately 30 hours after separation.
The mission was pitched as part of the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project (ASTP), where a docking module was constructed to make a joint mission possible. This Docking Module was designed by both the United States and the Soviet Union, and built in the US. It had to be designed as not only a docking device, but a differentiating airlock for the different atmospheres of the two ships, and a bridge to board each other. Before the ASTP, the astronauts and cosmonauts visited each other's space centers and became familiar with the spacecraft of the other country. Now the astronauts could do this in outer space itself, and conveniently study together. Having the chance to compare and further knowledge together would be a big step in space travel history.
On the third orbit the Soyuz 19 crew established contact with U.S. mission control in Houston, starting the global Moscow and Houston Soyuz-Apollo communications system. On the fifth orbit the crew placed the Soyuz 19 into its assigned circular docking orbit. The Apollo joined them promptly and they initiated the docking module two times, where the second time went smoother and everyone was pleased to continue. I could imagine this was a procedure to be taken slowly. Once boarded, Stafford presented Leonov with "five flags for your government and the people of the Soviet Union" with the wish that "our joint work in space serves for the benefit of all countries and peoples on the earth."
Thus began the two days of joint activites, such as meals aboard each others ships, Kubasov gave American TV viewers a tour of his Soyuz, and Stafford followed with a tour of the Apollo. Then each crew videotaped scientific demonstrations for transmission to their Earth stations later. Then came speeches and ‘exchanges of commemorative items.’ The total time for all transfers and studies was 19 hr 55 min. During nearly 2 days the five men carried out five joint experiments. This space adrift play-date came out as very constructive.
The Apollo spacecraft then moved to break off and in the process became a blocking disk, blocking the sun from the Soyuz and simulating the first man-made solar eclipse, or any kind of eclipse for that matter. Leonov and Kubasov photographed the solar corona.
As the spacecraft separated, the two crews performed the ultraviolet atmospheric absorption experiment twice until data was successfully collected. The Soyuz 19 remained in orbit nearly 30 hrs after the undocking,
conducting biological experiments with microorganisms and fungi. The Apollo remained in separate orbit while its crew continued sole U.S science experiments. Searching for extreme ultraviolet radiation, the ASTP crew marked the birth of a new branch of astronomy when they found, for the first time, extreme ultraviolet sources outside the solar system. Some scientists had believed that this could never be found. One of the newly discovered sources was the hottest known white dwarf star. The Apollo detector also revealed the existence of the first pulsar discovered outside the Milky Way, about 200 000 light years from earth's galaxy and 10 times brighter than any discovered so far. Lastly the astronauts looked at ocean currents, ocean pollution, desert geography, shoreline erosion, volcanoes, iceberg movements, and vegetation patterns.
They completed nearly all the 110 earth-observation tasks assigned. To land, The Apollo splashed down in the Pacific Ocean west of Hawaii. This was the last ocean landing planned for U.S. human space flights; future flights on the Space Shuttle would be wheeled touchdowns at land bases. The Apollo- Soyuz brought a significant amount of information about space into light as well as brought forth two major space programs as one.
-jenna
