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Soyuz 19 Launch
On July 15, 1975 at 8:20 am the Soviet Union Launched the Soyuz 19 into orbit from Bainkonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan. The flight crew included Alexey A. Leonov and Valery N. Kubasov. -
Apollo 18 Launch
On July 15, 1975 at 3:50 pm the USA launched the Apollo 18 spacecraft into orbit. They launched from Launch Complex 39, Kennedy Space Center, Florida. On board was Thomas P. Stafford, Vance D. Brand, and Donald K. Slayton. -
Hard-Docking
During the last couple of days both space crafts made orbital adjustments. This brought both of them into a circular, 229-kilometer orbit. At 12:12pm on July 17, 1975 both space crafts hard-docked as they went over the Atlantic ocean. A global audience watched on television as the 2 spaces crafts were launched and hard-docked. Hard-docking is when the 2 space crafts are joined together. -
Hatches Opening
Hatches between the two space crafts were open later on at 3:17 pm. The crews welcomed each other and began their joint experiments. After talking through expirements procedures, they took calls from the Soviet Communist Party General Secretary, Leonid Brezhnev and the U.S. President, Gerald Ford. The Astronauts and Cosmonauts then exchanged gifts and shared a meal before heading to bed. -
Tours
On the morning of July 18th, the crew split up and gave the world a tour of each of the space crafts. This gave the world a chance to see what was going to be happening in the next few days. They later had lunch and split off to their own spacecrafts to conduct some experiments. -
End of a Long Day
In mid-afternoon of July 18th, the final speeches were given and the last handshakes were over. the crew went back to their perspective space crafts and called it a night. -
Human-Made Eclipse
At 8:02 am, on July 19th, the two space crafts undocked from each other. Apollo backed away from Soyuz and blocked the sun from the Soyuz spacecraft. this created the first human-made eclipse and allowed the cosmonauts the chance to capture a picture of the sun's corona. -
Final Docking
The space crafts made their final docking after achieving the first human made eclipse. They then made the last undocking at 11:26 am. -
End of Mission For the Soviet Union
After splitting from Apollo 18, the Soyuz 19 space craft stayed in orbit to hold some life-science experiments. on July 21st at 6:51 am the Soyuz spacecraft landed successfully about seven miles from its target near Baikonur Cosmodrome. This was the first Soviet mission to be televised from launch to land. -
End of Mission for the United States
The Apollo spacecraft was still in orbit while the Soyuz spacecraft landed. The US decided to stay longer to conduct some Earth-observing and space-science experiments. Apollo splashed into the Pacific Ocean jsut outside of Hawaii at 5;18 pm EDT on July 24th. This space craft was the last planned ocean landing for the US.
