The Colorado Springs Gazette final

“U.S. AND SOVIET CREWS EAGERLY AWAIT JOINT SPACE FLIGHT”

APRIL 6, 1975

It was a Parade magazine story in 1966 that suggested an American-Soviet get-together in orbit. Nine years later, men from the two countries were training to do just that in the Apollo-soyuz Test Project. Donald K. “Deke” Slayton, last of the original Mercury astronauts, and Aleksei Leonov, first man to walk in space, were part of the Hve-man team that was planning to meet in space on July 15. “In the most spectacular demonstration yet of détente, the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. will, within hours of each other, launch spacecraft from opposite sides of the globe,” Parade reported. “Two days later, astronauts and cosmonauts will hold a hand-shaking, hospitality-swapping reunion before a worldwide television audience as they float weightlessly to and fro between each other’s linked space ships 140 miles above the earth.” Our cover photo was taken in Houston where the men were training. “All the crewmembers from both countries are first-rate,” Slayton said. “You might say we’ve had nyet problems.”

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2022-11-27T08:00:00.0000000Z

2022-11-27T08:00:00.0000000Z

https://daily.gazette.com/article/285387700666903

The Gazette, Colorado Springs