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KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. -- The ASTP Apollo Command Module is lowered onto the deck of the USS New Orleans following splashdown in the Pacific Ocean, west of Hawaii, at 5:18 p.m. today. Once aboard the ship, the ASTP astronauts Thomas Stafford, Vance Brand, and Donald Slayton emerged from the spacecraft and participated in ceremonies during which they spoke by telephone to President Gerald Ford. The splashdown ended the crew's historic nine-day mission, highlighted by their rendezvous and docking with a Soviet Soyuz spacecraft while in Earth orbit.