Apollo-Soyuz Test Project

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

You have new messages (last change).
Apollo-Soyuz Test Project
Mission Insignia
Apollo-Soyuz insigniaApollo-Soyuz insignia
Mission Statistics (Soyuz)
Mission Name: Soyuz 19
Call Sign: Союз (Soyuz - "Union")
Number of
Crew:		 2
Launch: July 15, 1975
12:20:00 UTC
Baikonur
Apogee: 231 km
Perigee: 218 km
Period: 88.92 min
Inclination: 51.76 deg
Landing: July 21, 1975
10:50:00 UTC
57° N 67° E
Duration: 5 d 22 h 30 min 54 s
Number of
Orbits:		 96
Distance
Traveled:		 ~2,400,000 mi
(~3,900,000 km)
Mass: Soyuz 6,790 kg
Mission Statistics (Apollo)
Mission Name: Apollo[1]
Call Sign: Apollo
Number of
Crew:		 3
Launch: July 15, 1975
19:50:00 UTC
Kennedy Space Center
LC-39B
Apogee: 231 km
Perigee: 217 km
Period: 88.91 min
Inclination: 51.75 deg
Landing: July 24, 1975
21:18:00 UTC
21°52′N 162°45′W
Duration: 9 d 1 h 28 min 24 s
Number of
Orbits:		 148
Distance
Traveled:		 ~3,700,000 mi
(~5,990,000 km)
Mass: CSM 14,768 kg
DM 2,012 kg
Crew Picture
ASTP crew portrait (L-R: Slayton, Stafford, Brand, Leonov, Kubasov)
ASTP crew portrait
(L-R: Slayton, Stafford, Brand, Leonov, Kubasov)
Mission Spacecraft
Apollo-Soyuz

↑1  Although the Apollo flight had no official mission number, it is often referred to as Apollo 18.

The Apollo-Soyuz Test Project was the first joint flight of the U.S. and Soviet space programs. The mission took place in July 1975. For the United States of America, it was the last Apollo flight, as well as the last manned space launch until the flight of the first Space Shuttle in April 1981. For the Soviet Union it was the last manned space flight until Soyuz 21 in June 1976.

Contents

[edit] Apollo crew

*Number in parentheses indicates number of spaceflights by each individual prior to and including this mission.

Jack Swigert had originally been assigned as the Command Module Pilot in the original ASTP prime crew, but prior to the official announcement was removed as punishment for his involvement in the Apollo 15 postage stamp scandal. (Swigert was not involved in the controversial Apollo 15 stamp deal, but in the investigation that followed the scandal he initially denied having any involvement in similar schemes. When evidence against him started to build up he confessed to Deke Slayton and was consequently considered to be undesirable from a public relations viewpoint.)

[edit] Backup crew

[edit] Soyuz crew

(1) number of spaceflights each crew member has completed, including this mission.

[edit] Backup crew

[edit] Mission parameters

  • Mass:
    • 14,768 kg (Apollo),
    •   6,790 kg (Soyuz)
  • Perigee:
    • 152 km (Apollo),
    • 186 km (Soyuz)
  • Apogee:
    • 166 km (Apollo),
    • 220 km (Soyuz)
  • Inclination:
    • 51.7° (Apollo),
    • 51.8° (Soyuz)
  • Period:
    • 87.6 minutes (Apollo),
    • 88.5 minutes (Soyuz)

[edit] Docking

  • First Docking: July 17, 1975 - 16:19:09 UTC
  • Last Undocking: July 19, 1975 - 15:26:12 UTC
  • Time Docked: 1 day, 23 hours, 07 minutes, 03 seconds

[edit] Mission highlights

The Apollo-Soyuz Test Project (ASTP) took place in the second half of July 1975 and entailed the docking of an American Apollo spacecraft with the Soviet Soyuz 19 space craft. While the Soyuz was given a mission designation number, officially the Apollo was not given one, as it was intended to represent the entire program and its conclusion. Some histories list this Apollo flight as Apollo 18, but per NASA this is incorrect.

The Apollo flew with the following crew on board: Tom Stafford, Vance Brand and Deke Slayton. The Soyuz 19 flew with Alexei Leonov and Valery Kubasov.

ASTP was in part inspired by the 1969 film Marooned, in which a stranded US Apollo crew is rescued by a Soviet spacecraft.[citation needed] Although the equipment developed for ASTP was only of use as a one-off, the program allowed NASA to maintain a manned space focus following the end of the Apollo and Skylab missions. As the Apollo's Saturn IB launcher and CSM were all surplus material, ASTP was the most inexpensive manned space program ever mounted.

The Soyuz 19 and Apollo flights launched within seven-and-a-half hours of each other July 15, and docked on July 17. Three hours later the two mission commanders, Stafford and Leonov, exchanged the first international handshake in space through the open hatch of the Soyuz. NASA had calculated that the historic handshake would have taken place over the British seaside resort of Bognor Regis, [2] but a delay resulted in its actual occurrence being over the town of Metz in France. [3]

The two spacecraft remained linked for 44 hours, long enough for the three Americans and two Soviets to exchange flags and gifts (including tree seeds which were later planted in the two countries), sign certificates, pay visits to each other's ships, eat together and converse in each other's languages. (Because of Stafford's pronounced drawl when speaking Russian, Leonov later joked that there were actually three languages spoken on the mission: Russian, English, and "Oklahomski.") There were also docking and redocking maneuvers during which the two spacecraft reversed roles and the Soyuz became the "active" ship. The Soviets remained in space for five days, the Americans for nine, during which the Soviets also conducted experiments in Earth observation.

Soyuz 19 spacecraft as seen from Apollo CM
Enlarge
Soyuz 19 spacecraft as seen from Apollo CM

While docked, the two crews conducted joint scientific experiments and spent time in each others' craft. After forty-four hours together, the two ships separated, and maneuvered to use the Apollo to create an artificial solar eclipse to allow the crew of the Soyuz to take photographs of the solar corona. Another brief docking was made before the ships went their separate ways.

The mission was a great success, both technically and as a public-relations exercise for both sides. For Slayton, it was a personal milestone in his life – he was originally slated to fly the Mercury 7 mission in 1962, but was grounded to an irregular heartbeat, a condition that grounded him until 1972, and after his reinstatement, required him to wait another three years before flying on Apollo-Soyuz. As an aside, the Apollo-Soyuz mission was the first mission carrying a handheld programmable pocket calculator (the HP-65); the calculator was programmed to perform several backup computations to partly stand in for the Apollo mission computer in case the latter should malfunction or cease to function altogether (neither of which occurred).

Launch of the Saturn IB rocket carrying the Apollo Command Module into orbit.
Enlarge
Launch of the Saturn IB rocket carrying the Apollo Command Module into orbit.

The only serious problem that arose was due to the Apollo crew making a mistake during their preparations for re-entry that resulted in a very rough landing and the capsule filling with noxious fumes. The reaction control system was inadvertently left on during descent, producing uncombusted thruster propellant which was then sucked into the capsule as its pressure equalized with the outside air. Brand briefly lost consciousness, and Slayton reported suffering nausea. As a precaution, the three astronauts were hospitalized for two weeks in Honolulu, Hawaii. During the hospitalization, a lesion was discovered on Slayton's left lung, not believed to have been caused by the fumes. A biopsy determined it was benign. [4]

This was the final flight of an Apollo spacecraft. The Command Module is on display at California Science Center, Los Angeles, California.

[edit] External links

Preceded by:
Skylab 4		 Project Apollo Succeeded by:
The ASTP was the end of Project Apollo. US Manned Space exploration continued with STS-1
Preceded by:
Soyuz 18		 Soyuz programme Succeeded by:
Soyuz 20
 v • d • e 
United States government manned space programs
Active: Space Shuttle | ISS (joint) | Project Constellation (future)
Past: Mercury | X-15 (suborbital) | Gemini | Apollo | Skylab | Apollo-Soyuz Test Project (joint, USSR) | Shuttle-Mir (joint, Russia)
Cancelled: MISS | Orion | Dyna-Soar | Manned Orbiting Laboratory | Space Station Freedom (now ISS) | Orbital Space Plane


 v • d • e 
USSR (to 1991) and Russian government manned space programs
Active: Soyuz | ISS (joint)
In Development: Kliper
Past: Vostok | Voskhod | Salyut | Apollo-Soyuz Test Project (joint) | Mir
Cancelled: Zond (lunar Soyuz) | N1 rocket | Spiral | Almaz (incorporated into Salyut program) | Energia / Buran
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org../../../a/p/o/Apollo-Soyuz_Test_Project_c864.html"