S75-20361

S75-20361 is a rendering of the American crew insignia of the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project. The names of all five crew members and the words "Apollo" in English and "Soyuz" in Russian encircle an artist's concept of the Apollo and Soyuz spacecraft, moments before docking in Earth orbit. The white stars on the blue background represent American astronauts Thomas P. Stafford, commander; Vance D. Brand, command module pilot; and Donald (Deke) K. Slayton, docking module pilot. The dark gold stars on the red background represent Soviet cosmonauts Aleksey A. Leonov, commander, and Valeriy N. Kubasov, engineer. Soyuz and Apollo were launched separately from the USSR and United States, then docked together for two days, allowing for the astronauts to come aboard each spacecraft via a docking module. The mission was a resounding success for both nations, not only as a space flight, but also as a practical expression of the cooperation that existed at the time between the United States and Soviet Union.