South Bend, July 17, 1975
The Handshake in Space
In a first attempt of cooperation in manned spaceflights between the U.S.A. and the Soviet Union, an American Apollo spacecraft was docked today on a Russian Soyuz. After the successful docking maneuver, the astronauts floated through the connecting channel into the Soyuz spaceship, where they were received with a friendly welcome by the cosmonauts. The event could be clearly followed on television. The handshake in space between the commanders Thomas Stafford and Alexej Leonov not only brings the Americans and Russians closer together, but it also demonstrates to the world that the détente has become an irrefutable reality.