Apollo Soyuz Test Project

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Representation of the successful docking maneuver between the Apollo and Soyuz spaceship
The two ASTP crews

The Apollo-Soyuz Test Project ( ASTP ) was the first US-American - Soviet cooperation in space exploration . An Apollo and Soyuz - spacecraft docked on July 17, 1975 in Earth orbit one another so that the spaceman of a spaceship could change into another. The mission represented a turning point in the previously strictly separate and competitive space programs of the superpowers. Rocket technology was a decisive basis of the arms raceand so the peaceful cooperation in space was a political success and a pacifist signal. The asteroid of the main outer belt (2228) Soyuz-Apollo , discovered on July 19, 1977, was named after the project.

Mission emblem

Spaceships and crews

Soyuz 19

Soyuz 19
Soyuz start
Another emblem of the mission

The Soviet spacecraft Soyuz 19 was launched with a Soyuz U rocket. On board were commander Alexei Leonov , who with Voskhod 2 already had experience in space, while the first spacewalk had undertaken, and flight engineer Valery Kubasov that with Soyuz 6 had been in space.

Anatoly Filipchenko and Nikolai Rukavischnikow were available as substitutes . Seven months earlier they had flown a test flight with Soyuz 16 in the same configuration as Soyuz 19.

The support team consisted of Boris Andreyev , Vladimir Dzhanibekov , Alexander Ivanchenkov and Yuri Romanenko . All four were already on the replacement or support team at Soyuz 16.

Apollo

Mission dates
Mission: Apollo ASTP
Spacecraft: Apollo
Launcher: Saturn IB
serial number SA – 210
Crew: 3
Begin: 15th July 1975
Starting place: Kennedy Space Center
LC-39B
Space station: Soyuz 19
Landing: July 24, 1975
Landing place: Pacific
Flight duration: 9 d 01 h 28 min
Rotation time : 88.6 min
Apogee : 222 km
Perigee : 187 km
◄ Before / After ►
Skylab 4 STS-1
Apollo launch

Since the last mission to the moon was flown with Apollo 17 , the spaceship of the Apollo Soyuz mission is occasionally referred to as Apollo 18, which was never officially assigned by NASA .

Unlike most other Apollo missions, the spaceship (serial number CSM-111) did not have its own callsign. This spaceship was originally intended for Apollo 15 . After the shortening of the lunar landing program, this mission was awarded in July 1971 to the spacecraft CSM-112, which was expanded for J missions (including carrying the moon rover). The CSM-111 was put on hold until a suitable mission was found with the Apollo-Soyuz flight.

A Saturn IB with the serial number SA-210 served as the carrier . The launch took place from the modified (and increased by an attachment) launch platform LC-39B.

On board were Commander Thomas Stafford , the pilot Vance Brand and the docking module pilot Deke Slayton .

Stafford was previously in space with Gemini 6 , Gemini 9 and Apollo 10 . With his fourth space flight, he was now leveling with Jim Lovell , John Young and Pete Conrad , who had already reached this mark earlier.

Brand had taken on support tasks during the entire Apollo program , for example, he had taken part in a one-week long-term test in the Apollo spacecraft . Most recently, he was a reserve commander of Skylab - Space Station .

Slayton was already a member of NASA's first selection group, the Mercury Seven , but lost his flight status shortly before his planned space flight for 1962 due to cardiac arrhythmias, so that he could not take off with a Mercury spaceship as planned . Between 1962 and 1974, he was responsible for the nomination of the Apollo crews as head of the astronauts office. When he regained his airworthiness in 1972, he nominated himself for the last Apollo flight, initially as commander with Jack Swigert as pilot and Vance Brand as pilot of the docking module. However, this was not enforceable within NASA. He received a nomination as pilot of the docking module and was the last astronaut of the Mercury Seven to fly into space.

The substitute team consisted of Alan Bean , Ron Evans and Jack Lousma . Bean and Lousma had previously spent 59 days in Earth orbit as part of the Skylab 3 mission. Evans was the pilot of the command module with Apollo 17 on the moon. Since NASA had to take a break in manned space travel after this flight, experienced astronauts who needed little additional training were selected for the replacement team.

The support team consisted of four astronauts who had been taken over by the US Air Force in 1969: Karol Bobko , Robert Crippen , Robert Overmyer and Richard Truly . These four also worked as liaison officers ( Capcoms ) for NASA , Overmyer from Moscow.

There were almost two and a half years between the official nomination of the team at the beginning of 1973 and the start in July 1975, which was by far the longest preparation time for an Apollo crew.

The docking module

Bilingual on-board manual, in the Moscow Cosmonaut Museum

Since the American and Soviet coupling systems did not match and the spaceships had different cabin atmospheres on board, Apollo and Soyuz could not couple directly. Both sides used systems in which one spacecraft was assigned the active and the other the passive side of the coupling process. For this application, a universal coupling system was developed in which each of the two sides could take on both the active and the passive role. Centering during docking was no longer ensured by a docking mandrel on the active side and a matching funnel on the passive side, but by three inclined metal plates each, which reached between those of the counterpart. While this universal coupling socket could be installed directly on the Soyuz orbital section, the modification of the Apollo command unit was significantly more complex. In order not to have to completely redesign the command unit during the last planned mission, NASA had a coupling adapter developed with the previous lunar ferry coupling socket on one side and the universal coupling socket on the other. This adapter also acted as an air lock for the transition from one cabin atmosphere to the other. During the launch, the ASTP docking module with a diameter of 1.40 m and a length of 3.15 m was stowed in the upper stage of the Saturn IB rocket. In Earth orbit, the Apollo then pulled the adapter out of its cover like the lunar module on previous lunar missions. The docking adapter was now at the top of the Apollo command module.

Pure oxygen with a pressure of 34% of the earth's atmosphere was used as the atmosphere on board the Apollo . On board the Soyuz, however, normal air ( nitrogen- oxygen mixture) was breathed under normal pressure. The usual pressure of 100% of the earth's atmosphere was reduced for this mission to 68% with an increased oxygen content, so that breathing could be more easily adapted when transferring from one spaceship to the other. This reduced the initial changeover time of two hours to just one hour.

Mission overview

Leonow (left) and Slayton (right) in Soyuz (1975)
  • The Soviet Soyuz 19 took off on July 15, 1975 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome . It was the first Soviet rocket launch to be televised internationally live.
  • Exactly seven and a half hours later, the Apollo spacecraft took off from Cape Canaveral . Since there were two other cosmonauts on board the Soviet space station Salyut 4 at that time , seven space travelers were in space at the same time.
  • In Earth orbit, the Apollo spacecraft pulled the docking module out of its holder.
  • Visual contact of the two spaceships on July 17th.
  • When the two spaceships were coupled, Apollo took on the active role.
  • On several occasions the spacemen switched to the other spaceship. Each spaceship remained manned by at least one spaceman at all times.
  • There was a historic handshake between the Soviet and US space travelers in orbit.
  • After 44 hours of flying together, Apollo and Soyuz separated for half an hour. Apollo moved in front of the sun to create an artificial solar eclipse for the Soyuz cosmonauts.
  • Second docking, this time Soyuz was the active spaceship. The spacemen did not change to the other spaceship.
  • Three hours later, the two spacecraft finally disconnected.
  • Soyuz 19 left Earth orbit and landed in the desert of Kazakhstan on July 21, 1975 . The landing was televised for the first time.
  • The Apollo landing capsule watered down in the Pacific Ocean on July 24, 1975 at 21 ° 52'N and 162 ° 45'W and was recovered by the USS New Orleans .

Almost disaster on the Apollo landing

Operating errors and a chain of unfortunate circumstances led to a life-threatening situation for the astronauts when the last Apollo landing capsule landed.

For a reason that was no longer comprehensible, two switches that were supposed to trigger the automatic landing system were not operated after re-entering the earth's atmosphere. When the auxiliary braking parachutes did not automatically deploy as intended at a height of around seven kilometers, the astronauts did this manually. Stabilization nozzles, which should have been automatically deactivated by the landing system, now fired because the position of the landing capsule no longer matched the preset position. This caused the capsule to spin. After about half a minute, the nozzles were turned off by the astronauts. During this time, however, unburned gases entered the capsule through the suction system for ambient air. The main parachutes were also not deployed automatically and were deployed manually by fire at an altitude of 2,700 meters. After the somewhat hard splash, the capsule floated upside down and Brand had to manually operate the lifting system to bring it into an upright position.

Brand had been unconscious for about 40 seconds. Stafford managed to put an oxygen mask on him. After the capsule had straightened up and the hatch could be opened, fresh air flowed in and the gases evaporated. The crew had to remain in the hospital for two weeks for observation after the rescue.

The flown capsule is located in the California Science Center in Los Angeles. The Apollo landing capsule used for interface and crew testing is on display in the Kennedy Space Center Visitor's Complex .

The effects

It was the last flight of an Apollo spacecraft and the Saturn IB launcher. At the same time, until the Dragon COTS1 mission in 2010, it was also the last US spaceship to parachute into water. From the American point of view, this marked the end of the era of manned space travel with missile rockets. There followed a six-year period in which there was no manned American spaceflight until the space shuttle began operations in 1981 .

The ASTP remained a one-time action by the two space powers, the USA and the USSR. Twenty years later the Shuttle Mir program started , but by that time the USSR had already collapsed.

Web links

Commons : Apollo-Soyuz-Test-Project  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Lutz D. Schmadel : Dictionary of Minor Planet Names . Fifth Revised and Enlarged Edition. Ed .: Lutz D. Schmadel. 5th edition. Springer Verlag , Berlin , Heidelberg 2003, ISBN 978-3-540-29925-7 , pp.  181 (English, 992 pp., Link.springer.com [ONLINE; accessed on October 28, 2017] Original title: Dictionary of Minor Planet Names . First edition: Springer Verlag, Berlin, Heidelberg 1992): “Named in honor of the joint Soviet -American space flight in 1975. "
  2. ^ California Science Center: Apollo-Soyuz Command Module. California Science Center, accessed April 21, 2010 .