From Competition to Cooperation: The Apollo-Soyuz Test Project and the End of the Space Race

After World War II, a period of tension occurred, where a battle between the United States and the Soviet Union to prove their respective technological superiority raged silently for decades. The 1975 Apollo-Soyuz mission was the very first international space mission, and it marked the beginning of a fruitful collaboration between the two previously hostile entities. This joint venture between the rival superpowers signified the first major step toward ending the Cold War.

The History of the Space Race

The history of the Space Race leading up to the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project is perhaps best broken down into periods based on who was in power of their respective country during that time. As such, the history of the Space Race can be broken down into six main periods, beginning with the Eisenhower-Khrushchev period; followed by the Khrushchev-Kennedy, Khrushchev-Johnson, Brezhnev-Johnson, and Brezhnev-Nixon periods; and culminating in the Brezhnev-Ford period.

The Eisenhower-Khrushchev Period

The Eisenhower-Khrushchev Period was the formative period from 1953 to 1961, wherein the 34th president of the United States, Dwight D. Eisenhower, and the First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and later Premier of the Soviet Union, Nikita Khrushchev, each worked to form their respective country’s space policy.⁶ The priorities for the United States during this time were twofold: to outpace the Soviet Union with regard to the research and development of long-range missiles and space-based reconnaissance, and to “ease into the space age”.⁶ 

Thanks to rocket engineer and spacecraft designer Sergei Korolev’s attitude toward defeating the Americans in space, the Soviets pulled ahead with an early lead in 1957 with the launch of Sputnik 1, the very first man-made satellite, and this would establish a pattern of space-based firsts for the Soviet Union, including the first spacecraft to impact the lunar surface—Luna 2 in September of 1959—as well as the first images of the “dark side” of the Moon—Luna 3 in October of 1959.¹ While successful American endeavors were never too far behind, with the first American satellite, Explorer 1, launched in 1958, American concern regarding their security and potential technological inferiority were growing.

While the Soviet space program erred on the side of secrecy, often waiting to release any details of their ventures until a launch was deemed successful, the American space program was very open and transparent, and seeing the need to have a civilian-oriented agency devoted to space science, Eisenhower signed the National Aeronautics and Space Act and established NASA.¹

The Khrushchev-Kennedy Period

The Khrushchev-Kennedy Period was the period from 1961 to 1963, wherein the 35th president of the United States, John F. Kennedy, and the Premier of the Soviet Union, Nikita Khrushchev, continued to develop their respective countries’ space programs, which included the first real prospects for Soviet-American collaborative space efforts, thanks in no small part to Kennedy’s much more diplomatic approach to America’s relationship with the Soviet Union.⁶ In April of 1961, Yuri Gagarin—a Soviet pilot and cosmonaut—became the first man in space, and Kennedy saw the need to establish an ambitious, expensive, and efficient space program. Unconvinced of the potential for an American victory should the space race be pursued, Kennedy prioritized cooperation with the Soviet Union, viewing it as a way to repair the damage done to America’s dignity, as well as an area of common interest for the rival nations.⁶ 

In May of 1961, Kennedy made the announcement that the United States was committed to putting a man on the Moon before the decade was over, and shortly afterward, Kennedy examined the feasibility of bringing in the Soviet Union as a full partner on the project, proposing the idea to a mildly receptive Khrushchev in June of 1961; but disagreements later in 1961 and 1962 put a damper on the joint venture, and while the relationship between the United States and the Soviet Union improved noticeably after Kennedy’s famous West Berlin speech in June of 1963, his unfortunate assassination in November of 1963 thwarted the cooperative effort altogether for the time being.⁷

The Khrushchev-Johnson Period

The Khrushchev-Johnson Period was the brief period from 1963 to 1964, wherein the Premier of the Soviet Union, Nikita Khrushchev, and the 36th president of the United States, Lyndon B. Johnson, dealt continually with space affairs.⁶ As the vice president under Kennedy, Johnson served as the chairman for the Special Committee on Space and Astronautics, and, as such, was well-versed in activities in space and their political implications. 

Johnson’s primary concern was national security, and he saw the Soviet Union’s triumph with regard to the achievement that was Sputnik 1 as a grave failing for the United States; but he was also a large supporter of collaboration between countries with regard to space-based efforts, holding the belief that the end-goal of the space race was peace, and that the method of achieving said peace was cooperation on a global scale, stating “men who worked together to reach the stars are not likely to descend into the depths of war and desolation”.⁶ Despite this fact, as president, Johnson never made any direct proposals to the Soviet Union with regard to cooperation in space, with only two indirect proposals during his first term: the first by means of delegation, to reiterate Kennedy’s Moon proposal; and the second by means of wishful thinking, in an article published in the Saturday Evening Post.⁶

The Brezhnev-Johnson Period

The Brezhnev-Johnson Period was the period from 1964 to 1969, wherein the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, Leonid Brezhnev, and the 36th president of the United States, Lyndon B. Johnson, would continue to deal with space affairs, albeit not together. Considering the strain placed on Soviet Union-United States relations during the Vietnam War, Brezhnev—who came into power in October of 1964—believed “strategic equivalency” with the Americans should be the goal of the Soviet Union during this period, while Johnson’s stance during this period became less cooperative, favoring competition, and stating in September of 1964 that he would “never accept a place second to any other nation” with regard to the industry of space.⁶ 

This period would kick off with several American firsts, including the first geostationary satellite with Syncom 3 in 1964; the first orbit change by a piloted spacecraft with Gemini 3, as well as the first Mars flyby with Mariner 4, and eight- and fourteen-day human spaceflight records with Gemini 5 and Gemini 7, all in 1965; the first spacecraft docking with Gemini 8 in 1966; and unfortunately, in January of 1967, the first cabin fire, which occurred during a ground test, and resulted in the death of the entire crew of Apollo 1. Only three months later, in April of 1967, the Soviet Union would set the unfortunate record for first in-flight fatality, when the Soyuz 1 spacecraft carrying cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov experienced a parachute failure and crashed into the ground after being launched into orbit.

The final years of this period were spent locked in a race to the Moon, and while the Soviet Union was able to get the first terrestrial life safely around the Moon and back to Earth in the form of two tortoises, fruit fly eggs, and some plants with the Zond 5 spacecraft in September of 1968, in December of 1968, the United States were able to get the first human crew safely around the Moon and back to Earth with Apollo 8.

The Brezhnev-Nixon Period

The Brezhnev-Nixon Period was the period from 1969 to 1974, wherein the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, Leonid Brezhnev, and the 37th president of the United States, Richard Nixon, were able to facilitate appreciable Soviet-American space cooperation for the very first time. Nixon had his sights set on reducing the United States’ military budget, and ending the arms race with the Soviet Union could help to achieve this goal.⁶ 

Though not particularly enthusiastic about or interested in space affairs, Nixon inherited a thriving space program, and in July of 1969, during the Apollo 11 spaceflight, not only did American astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin become the first human beings to walk on the surface of the Moon, but they also achieved the first space launch from another celestial body. In the spring just prior to this achievement, NASA’s then-Administrator, Thomas O. Paine, reached out to the Soviet Union in an attempt to revitalize interest in space collaboration, and later exchanged letters with the president of the USSR Academy of Sciences, Mstislav Keldysh, who seemed relatively eager to work with the United States.⁸

Joint Venture Conceived

With the success of Apollo 11, the most significant milestone in the Space Race had been achieved, and in October of 1969, Soviet cosmonaut Konstantin Feoktistov unofficially declared the Space Race to have ended, declaring the “first phase of space flight” to be over, and stating that the second phase would see Soviet and American scientists “intensely helping each other”, which was indicative of the new attitude adopted by the Soviets with regard to cooperating in space-based efforts.⁶ In October of 1970, Paine and Keldysh’s continued communications led to a technical meeting in Moscow, wherein Nixon’s approval of a joint venture to test compatible rendezvous and docking systems was given, and by late 1971, engineers from both countries had determined that the prospects of a collaborative test flight appeared to be “technically feasible and desirable”.⁸ In May of 1972, a formal space agreement was signed during the Moscow summit, finalizing the decision for both countries to participate in the Apollo/Soyuz joint test flight, ushering in a “new era in space exploration”.⁴

More Firsts in Space

Many more space firsts for both countries would roll-out during this period, but this new spirit of cooperation made it much easier to celebrate each other’s accomplishments rather than view them as threats to national security. New firsts during this period include the Soviets accomplishing the first soft landing on and signals from another planet (Venus, with Venera 7 in December of 1970), the first human-crewed space station (Salyut 1 in April of 1971), the first impact into Mars (Mars 2 in November of 1971), and the first soft landing on and signals from the surface of Mars (Mars 3 in December of 1971); and the Americans accomplishing the first mobile vehicle driven by humans on the Moon (the lunar rover, with Apollo 15 in July of 1971), the first deep space spacewalk (Apollo 15 in August of 1971), an 84-day human-crewed space record (Skylab 4 in November of 1973), and the first Jupiter flyby (Pioneer 10 in December of 1973).

On June 29th of 1971, after achieving the at-that-time 23-day manned space record in the first human-crewed orbital observatory, Orion 1, the crew of Soyuz 11 undocked their ship from the space station, Salyut 1, completed three additional orbits around the Earth, and notified ground control of their intent to descend; but upon touchdown and recovery of the descent vehicle, the three-man crew was found to be dead, stirring much speculation as to the cause, which was later determined to be asphyxia from cabin depressurization.⁵ This incident was a hard hit for the space community at large, emphasizing the potential dangers associated with space exploration. President Nixon reached out to the Soviet leadership, stating on behalf of the United States:

“The American people join in expressing to you and the Soviet people our deepest sympathy on the tragic deaths of the three Soviet cosmonauts. The whole world followed the exploits of these courageous explorers of the unknown and shares the anguish of their tragedy. But the achievements of cosmonauts Dobrovolsky, Volkov and Patsayev remain. It will, I am sure, prove to have contributed greatly to the further achievements of the Soviet program for the exploration of space and thus to the widening of man’s horizons”.⁵

By late 1973, Nixon’s political support was waning due to the escalating Watergate scandal, and with Nixon’s unprecedented resignation from office in August of 1974, he would not be the presiding president of the United States to see first-hand the fruits of the détente for which he had labored.

The Brezhnev-Ford Period

The Brezhnev-Ford Period was the period from 1974 to 1977, wherein the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, Leonid Brezhnev, and the 38th president of the United States, Gerald Ford, continued the work on their countries’ respective space programs, and during which the Apollo/Soyuz joint flight took place. Like Nixon before him, Ford inherited an already-flourishing space program, and seeing it as evidence the partnership was serving to relax strained Soviet-American relations, he continued the spirit of space brotherhood with the Soviets.⁴

In September of 1974, the Soviet cosmonauts who would be taking part in the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project the following year, Alexei Leonov and Valeri Kubasov, visited the United States for a meeting with Ford. On a diplomatic tour through DC, in a stunning display of brotherhood, they visited the graves of Gus Grissom, Ed White, and Roger Chaffee—the American astronauts who perished in the Apollo 1 disaster—in order to honor their “fallen American comrades”.⁴

The Apollo-Soyuz Test Project

On July 15 of 1975, millions of people all over the globe gathered in front of their televisions to watch the mission officially begin.

At 8:20 AM Eastern Daylight Time, Soyuz 19 launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, which was then part of the Soviet Union. The Soyuz capsule carried two Soviet cosmonauts: Commander Alexei Leonov and Flight Engineer Valeri Kubasov. Leonov holds the prestigious credential of being the first man to walk in space, which he achieved during the Soviet Voskhod 2 mission in 1965. Almost eight hours later, at 3:50 PM, Apollo launched from Launch Complex 39 at Kennedy Space Center in Merritt Island, Florida, carrying three American astronauts: Commander Thomas Stafford, Command Module Pilot Vance Brand, and Docking Module Pilot Donald “Deke” Slayton.³

Over the following two days, in what is called the “chase” phase of the mission, both vehicles would make a series of orbital adjustments in order to bring themselves into a circular orbit around Earth at 229 kilometers in altitude. The spacecraft would come closer and closer together at a rate of about 255 kilometers per revolution. At around 8:00 AM on July 17, Command Module Pilot Brand stated he could see the Soyuz craft as “a speck” in one of his navigation instruments, and moments later the two ships established voice contact, wherein Slayton called in Russian and Kubasov responded in English.⁵

July 17 at 12:12 PM, the two craft achieved hard-dock while flying over the Atlantic Ocean. Three hours and five minutes later, the hatches between the vessels opened, and through the open hatches Commander Stafford and Commander Leonov greeted each other with the famous and historic handshake in space, after which they received calls in congratulation from both Bezhnev and Ford.³ The crews exchanged flags and gifts, visited each other’s cabins, and shared meals before departing for their respective cabins for the remainder of the day. 

The following day, the crews conducted broadcasts to television viewers at home—with the occasional communications issue—and during a broadcast session to America, Kubasov stated in English: “It would be wrong to ask which country’s more beautiful. It would be right to say there is nothing more beautiful than our blue planet”.⁵

On July 18, at around 8:20 AM, the crew started filming scientific demonstrations regarding the effects of zero-gravity on various items with the intent that they would be shown in science classrooms, and a few hours later, they held a space-to-ground press conference, wherein they answered pre-collected questions from news outlets in Houston and Moscow. Afterwards, they continued with the remaining items on their agenda, which included Slayton’s Earth observation experiment taking photographs of ocean currents, Brand’s travelogue of the East Coast of the United States, and five bilateral experiments to be performed jointly by the two crews.⁵

On July 19, the crew was stirring and ready to begin at around 3:30 AM, performing docking exercises and experiments involving the two spacecraft, including creating an artificial solar eclipse for the Soyuz craft by using the Apollo service module to block the Sun; as well as an ultraviolet absorption experiment, wherein the levels of atomic oxygen and atomic nitrogen were measured at their orbiting altitudes.³ Additional undocking and redocking maneuvers were performed, which were not quite as smooth as the initial landing, but served to prove the hardiness of the hardware.⁵

On July 19 at 11:26 AM, the Apollo and Soyuz spacecraft undocked for the final time to go their separate ways. Soyuz 19 remained in orbit for another day in order to perform additional life-science experiments, while Apollo remained in orbit for an additional five days in order to perform experiments in Earth-observing, extreme ultraviolet surveying, crystal growth, helium glow, doppler tracking, geodynamics—as well as give a final press conference from space.⁵

The Soyuz 19 mission ended officially on July 21 at 6:51 AM, when it landed with success fewer than seven miles away from its target in Kazakhstan, and a Soviet task force of helicopters and ground-based personnel recovered the capsule as well as Leonov and Kubasov, who were both safe.⁵

Apollo’s descent back to Earth was as expected until around 15,000 meters, when, for one reason or another, a few switches were not armed, and the Earth landing system was not actuated, causing Brand to need to manually engage it, which seemed to cause a nitrogen tetroxide leak into the cabin; but the crew was able to secure their oxygen masks relatively quickly, and the landing, while somewhat hard, was still relatively normal.⁵ Apollo splashed into the Pacific Ocean on July 24 at 5:18 PM, just west of Hawaii and not far from the recovery ship, and it was the last time a capsule would be recovered in the ocean on purpose for the United States.³

The End of the Space Race

While the Space Race did not end altogether with the success of the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project, the competition gradually transitioned to being far less intense, and it also served to set the precedent for cooperative efforts in space, which would continue—albeit much later—with the American Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer instrument aboard the Soviet Meteor satellite in 1991, and the Shuttle-Mir program, which ran from 1991 to 1998 and saw Space Shuttles from the United States docking with Mir, the Russian space station.²

In a 2000 interview, Command Module Pilot Vance Brand said the project helped to humanize the Soviets in a time when Cold War tensions were high, stating “when you deal with people that are in the same line of work as you are, and you’re around them for a short time, why, you discover that, well, they’re human beings”.⁹

The Cold War wouldn’t officially end until the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, and in some ways things would get worse before they got better; but the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project did serve as a model for what international cooperation can make possible. In that same 2000 interview, Brand modestly states that their mission was “sort of an example” and “a little of a spark or a foot in the door that started better communications”.⁹

Conclusion

The success of the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project was multi-layered. It served as a symbol of space brotherhood for two silently warring nations. It represented the culmination of two decades of intensely difficult work. It represented justification for the sacrifices of those who gave their lives in the pursuit of greatness for humankind, and it serves as a sterling example of all we can accomplish when we put aside our differences and work together.