iss063m261991304_Expedition_63_US_Ambassador_to_Russia_discuss_Apollo-Soyuz_45th_Anniversary_200717

SPACE STATION CREW MARKS APOLLO-SOYUZ ANNIVERSARY Aboard the International Space Station, Expedition 63 Commander Chris Cassidy of NASA and Russian Flight Engineers Anatoly Ivanishin and Ivan Vagner of Roscosmos marked the 45th anniversary of the historic docking of an Apollo command module and a Soyuz spacecraft during an in-flight conversation July 17 with the U.S. Ambassador to Russia, John J. Sullivan and Vasily Boryak, the Deputy Director of the North American Division of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The Apollo command module, with Tom Stafford, Vance Brand and Deke Slayton aboard and the Soyuz spacecraft with Alexey Leonov and Valery Kubasov, linked up on July 17, 1975, two days after their respective launches from the Kennedy Space Center, Florida and the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan to mark the beginning of the international cooperation between the United States and Russia that has been recognized as the springboard for the development and assembly of the International Space Station.