Apollo–Soyuz

Apollo–Soyuz was the first crewed international space mission, conducted jointly by the United States and the Soviet Union in July 1975. Millions watched on television as an American Apollo spacecraft docked with a Soviet Soyuz capsule. The mission and its symbolic "handshake in space" became an emblem of détente during the Cold War.

The Americans referred to the flight as the Apollo–Soyuz Test Project (ASTP), while the Soviets called it Experimental flight "Soyuz"–"Apollo" (Russian: Экспериментальный полёт «Союз»–«Аполлон», romanized: Eksperimentalniy polyot "Soyuz"–"Apollon") and designated the spacecraft Soyuz 19. The unnumbered Apollo vehicle was a leftover from the canceled Apollo missions program and was the final Apollo module to fly.

The crew consisted of American astronauts Thomas P. Stafford, Vance D. Brand, and Deke Slayton, and Soviet cosmonauts Alexei Leonov and Valery Kubasov. They carried out joint and independent experiments, including an arranged solar eclipse created by the Apollo spacecraft to allow Soyuz instruments to photograph the solar corona. Preparations for the mission provided experience for later joint American–Russian space flights, such as the Shuttle–Mir program and the International Space Station.

Apollo–Soyuz was the last crewed U.S. spaceflight for nearly six years until STS-1, the first launch of the Space Shuttle on 12 April 1981, and the last crewed U.S. spaceflight in a space capsule until Crew Dragon Demo-2 on 30 May 2020.