Apollo- Soyuz, as I lived it a half century ago Pt1

 

ASTP

After nearly a year and a half of not having any Americans in space we space buffs were actually looking forward to this thing called the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project (ASTP). 

Launched on July 15, 1975 ASTP did not have its roots in science, discovery or exploration. ASTP was, in fact, little more than a political exhibition conducted in space. Amid the atmosphere of the Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty of 1972, better known as SALT-1, the Nixon administration cooked up the prospect to have an American Apollo vehicle rendezvous and dock with a Soviet Soyuz spacecraft in Earth orbit. It would use up one of the final remaining Apollo spacecraft, one of the final flight-ready Saturn IB boosters, and all of the remaining Apollo budget. For Nixon, ASTP also would satisfy his desire to best his historical political rivals. Too bad for him that he was compelled to resign from the presidency in disgrace before ASTP was stacked in the VAB. 

From the perspective of a space buff Nixon’s legacy in spaceflight was that AS-210, the ASTP Saturn IB, was launched on a Tuesday and on the following Friday 1,200 contractor workers at KSC were issued their pink slips. Sadly, it was only the beginning of an aerospace industry-wide recession. 

To most enthusiasts of NASA and the U.S. space program, ASTP meant little more than being able to witness an Apollo spacecraft fly again for the first time in more than a year. 

Without question the most exciting aspect of ASTP was the fact that the crew would contain one of the original seven astronauts, none other than Deke Slayton. Anyone who knew anything about NASA knew Deke’s story. He originally had been selected as the fourth of the seven original astronauts to fly, with his mission being one that would mirror John Glenn’s three orbits. He had named his capsule “Delta 7,” but as launch day drew near a single doctor looked at a minor heart fibrillation and decided to make it into a major issue. Slayton was grounded and ended up being the guy who selected new-hire astronauts and formed crews for missions. Then, some nine years after he had been grounded, Slayton began taking a regiment of vitamins to combat a cold and soon it dawned on him that his heart had not fluttered in months. After being examined extensively at the Mayo Clinic he was cleared for flight, and shortly thereafter he was cleared for spaceflight. The only problem was that all the remaining space missions were already assigned crews. Fortunately, along came one additional mission, which was ASTP. Slayton recommended himself for that mission. There was no one in NASA or in the spaceflight community who could have argued with that selection. Slayton’s only remaining problem was that he would have to learn to speak basic Russian.

 All of the crews involved in the flight were required to learn to speak the language of the other nation. During the mission, the Americans would speak Russian to the Soviet crew and the Soviets would speak English to the American crew. 

Although there was very little technical advancement involved in ASTP, the political fluff was enough to draw the continued attention of the news networks. These same networks, who collectively ignored the splashdown of the Skylab 4 crew after their world record stay in space, now went all out to cover ASTP.

 Perhaps the most interesting aspect of ASTP for us space buffs was the fact that for the first time we would get a good look at the Soviet’s mysterious Soyuz spacecraft. For over a decade the details of Soyuz had been shrouded behind Iron Curtain secrecy. 

Now, in order for ASTP to actually happen, the ever-paranoid Soviets had to lift the covers. Additionally, the US demanded that our crews and NASA officials must be allowed to tour the top-secret Baikonur Cosmodrome launch site in Kazakhstan. Also, NASA insisted that US astronauts be allowed to examine the operational hardware such as the Soyuz spacecraft that would fly on the mission and the booster that would place it into orbit.

Although there was very little of ASTP for someone like me to get excited about, it did inspire Ravell to produce a 1:96 scale model kit for the event. The kit was based on their Apollo lunar landing kit of the same scale and it used the same CSM. New was the “International Docking Module” and a detailed 1:96 version of their long shrouded in secrecy Soyuz. I bought one of the kits in hope that it would annoy the Soviets.

 

WATCH FOR PART 2