Clouds over southeastern Pacific Ocean, ASTP.
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50 years ago… mutual post-flight ASTP visits!
Post-flight, between 20 September & 3 October 1975, the American ASTP crew visited the Soviet-Union, symbolizing peace and successful international cooperation between world powers.
Between 12 - 25 October the Russian ASTP crew visited the USA, with Alexei Leonov wearing his Omega flightmaster… the beloved pilot watch of the Russian cosmonauts as ever since their May 1973 visit to the Omega HQ in Switzerland, they were mostly interested in the flightmaster and the automatic Speedmaster Mark III pilot watches !
(Photos: NASA/AP)
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Launching back to the historic Apollo-Soyuz mission in 1975, a new space thriller titled “Final Orbit” arrives next month from New York Times bestselling author, TV host, YouTube sensation, TED speaker, classic rocker, and social media personality, retired astronaut Chris Hadfield.
The engrossing alternative history novel unfolds during the historic Apollo-Soyuz linkup between American astronauts and Soviet cosmonauts. It deftly chronicles how China’s clandestine launch of its first astronaut in east Asia leads to an international espionage incident and an accident that puts the entire joint mission in jeopardy.
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On this date… 95 years ago…
1930, September 17 was the birthdate of Thomas Patten Stafford, remembering a great Officer & Gentleman, NASA astronaut who flew 21 days 3 hours in space during 4 spaceflight missions. In 1952 Thomas Stafford graduated as an officer at the US Naval academy – Annapolis Maryland but was via lottery commissioned as a 2nd Lt in the US Air Force. Fast forward to 1958 as Thomas Stafford attended the US Air Force Test Pilot School, finishing first in class 58C, winning the Anderson B. Honts Award. He stayed on as an Instructor Pilot at Edwards Air Force Base before being selected an astronaut in NASA group 2 in September 1962.
During his time at NASA, Stafford was among the three first astronauts to receive an Omega Speedmaster 105.003-63 chronograph as a backup for the Gemini III mission. After Gemini III backup assignment, Stafford remained paired with Walter Schirra for the Gemini VI mission announced in April 1965 with the mission needing three launch attempts to be launched on December 15, 1965 as Gemini VIa, meeting in Low Earth Orbit with the Gemini VII spacecraft of Frank Borman and James Lovell. During Gemini VIa, both Schirra and Stafford were the first astronauts to wear their US Navy aviator and US Air Force pilot wing attached to the space suit! For Gemini VIa, Stafford received two NASA-issued Omega Speedmaster 105.003-64 chronographs, one of which he would also use during Gemini IX and Apollo 10.
In July 1975, Stafford was commander of the historic ASTP Apollo-Soyuz Test Project mission, linking up for 47 hours with a Soviet-Russian Soyuz spacecraft of Alexei Leonov and Valeri Kubasov. In total, Thomas Stafford had worn five different NASA Omega Speedmaster chronographs, four of which effectively used during four spaceflight missions.
By November 1979, USAF General Stafford had left NASA and became board member of Omega USA, remaining an Omega Speedmaster ambassador for the rest of his life. Lots and lots more wrist-watch-wise anecdotes with NASA astronaut Thomas Stafford, gifting watches to fellow astronauts, pranks but also unfortunately a loss of a beloved Speedmaster, all details and photographs in our upcoming article commemorating a great NASA astronaut!
(Photos: USAF/NASA)
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Friends for Life !
Great to see how Russian cosmonaut Alexei Leonov and American astronaut Thomas Stafford became friends for life !
July 1975, during ASTP, a total of 10 Omega Speedmaster chronographs were flown, the three astronauts each wore two 321 versions, the two cosmonauts each wore two 861 versions, with Leonov carrying a third Omega flightmaster in his personal kit. A record-number of 10 Omega Speedmaster at the same time in space, a record that stood until December 1990.
This photo was taken during 2014 Wintergames and shows then Omega CEO Stephen Urquhart with both ASTP commanders. Note the Gold Omega Constellation MegaQuartz n° 4 gifted to Leonov!
(Photo: Omega)
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October 4, 2007, the beginning of the Space Race 50th anniversaries that end this week with the Apollo-Soyuz 50th.
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Sketches by W. Taub outlining Soviet and American spacecraft characteristics. Prepared in 1969 for the Apollo Soyuz Test Program. Of note is the Gemini and Big G capsule sketches and the lack of the docking module for the Apollo Capsule.
The Apollo’s cabin atmosphere was 100 percent oxygen at 0.34 atmosphere pressure, while that of Soyuz was nitrogen/oxygen at 1.0 atmosphere. This necessitated the docking module for the two crews to interact with one another.
NASA ID: S74-05269
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Cancelled Missions: Apollo-Soyuz Test Program II, with a Salyut Space Station
“The Apollo-Soyuz Test Project (ASTP) had its origins in talks aimed at developing a common U.S./Soviet docking system for space rescue. The concept of a common docking system was first put forward in 1970; it was assumed at that time, however, that the docking system would be developed for future spacecraft, such as the U.S. Space Station/Space Shuttle, not the U.S. Apollo Command and Service Module (CSM) and Soviet Soyuz spacecraft in operation at the time.
A joint U.S./Soviet space mission served the political aims of both countries, however, so the concept of a near-term docking mission rapidly gained momentum. In May 1972, at the superpower summit meeting held in Moscow, President Richard Nixon and Premier Alexei Kosygin signed an agreement calling for an Apollo-Soyuz docking in July 1975.
NASA and its contractors studied ways of expanding upon ASTP even before it was formally approved; in April 1972, for example, McDonnell Douglas proposed a Skylab-Salyut international space laboratory . A year and a half later (September 1973), however, the aerospace trade magazine Aviation Week & Space Technology cited unnamed NASA officials when it reported that, while the Soviets had indicated interest in a 1977 second ASTP flight, the U.S. space agency was ‘currently unwilling’ to divert funds from Space Shuttle development.
Salyut Apollo docking diagram
Nevertheless, early in 1974 the Flight Operations Directorate (FOD) at NASA Johnson Space Center (JSC) in Houston, Texas, examined whether a second ASTP mission might be feasible in 1977. The 1977 ASTP proposal aimed to fill the expected gap in U.S. piloted space missions between the 1975 ASTP mission and the first Space Shuttle flight.
The brief in-house study focused on mission requirements for which NASA JSC had direct responsibility. FOD assumed that Apollo CSM-119 would serve as the prime 1977 ASTP spacecraft and that the U.S. would again provide the Docking Module (DM) for linking the Apollo CSM with the Soyuz spacecraft. CSM-119 had been configured as the five-seat Skylab rescue CSM; work to modify it to serve as the 1975 ASTP backup spacecraft began as FOD conducted its study, soon after the third and final Skylab crew returned to Earth in February 1974. FOD suggested that, if a backup CSM were deemed necessary for the 1977 ASTP mission, then the incomplete CSM-115 spacecraft should get the job. CSM-115, which resided in storage in California, had been tapped originally for the cancelled Apollo 19 moon landing mission.
FOD also assumed that the ASTP prime crew of Thomas Stafford, Vance Brand, and Deke Slayton would serve as the backup crew for the 1977 ASTP mission, while the 1975 ASTP backup crew of Alan Bean, Ronald Evans, and Jack Lousma would become the 1977 ASTP prime crew. FOD conceded, however, that this assumption was probably not realistic. If new crewmembers were needed, FOD noted, then training them would require 20 months. They would undergo 500 hours of intensive language instruction during their training.
FOD estimated that Rockwell International support for the 1977 ASTP flight would cost $49.6 million, while new experiments, nine new space suits, and 'government-furnished equipment’ would total $40 million. Completing and modifying CSM-115 for its backup role would cost $25 million. Institutional costs — for example, operating Mission Control and the Command Module Simulator (CMS), printing training manuals and flight documentation, and keeping the cafeteria open after hours — would add up to about $15 million. This would bring the total cost to $104.7 million without the backup CSM and $129.7 million with the backup CSM.
The FOD study identified 'two additional major problems’ facing the 1977 ASTP mission, both of which involved NASA JSC’s Space Shuttle plans. The first was that the CMS had to be removed to make room for planned Space Shuttle simulators. Leaving it in place to support the 1977 ASTP mission would postpone Shuttle simulator availability.
A thornier problem was that 75% of NASA JSC’s existing flight controllers (about 100 people) would be required for the 1977 ASTP in the six months leading up to and during the mission. In the same period, NASA planned to conduct "horizontal” Space Shuttle flight tests. These would see a Shuttle Orbiter flown atop a modified 747; later, the aircraft would release the Orbiter for an unpowered glide back to Earth. FOD estimated that NASA JSC would need to hire new flight controllers if it had to support both the 1977 ASTP and the horizontal flight tests. The new controllers would receive training to support Space Shuttle testing while veteran controllers supported the 1977 ASTP.
The ASTP Apollo CSM (CSM-111) lifted off on a Saturn IB rocket on 15 July 1975 with astronauts Thomas Stafford, Vance Brand, and Donald Slayton on board. The ASTP Saturn IB, the last rocket of the Saturn family to fly, lifted off from Launch Complex (LC) 39 Pad B, one of two Saturn V pads at Kennedy Space Center, not the LC 34 and LC 37 pads used for Saturn IB launches in the Apollo lunar program. This was because NASA had judged that maintaining the Saturn IB pads for Skylab and ASTP would be too costly. A 'pedestal’ (nicknamed the 'milkstool’) raised the Skylab 2, 3, and 4 and ASTP Saturn IB rockets so that they could use the Pad 39B Saturn V umbilicals and crew access arm.
Once in orbit, the ASTP CSM turned and docked with the DM mounted on top of the Saturn IB’s second stage. It then withdrew the DM from the stage and set out in pursuit of the Soyuz 19 spacecraft, which had launched about eight hours before the Apollo CSM with cosmonauts Alexei Leonov and Valeri Kubasov on board. The two craft docked on 17 July and undocked for the final time on July 19. Soyuz 19 landed on 21 July. The ASTP Apollo CSM, the last Apollo spacecraft to fly, splashed down near Hawaii on 24 July 1975 — six years to the day after Apollo 11, the first piloted Moon landing mission, returned to Earth.
The proposal for a 1977 ASTP repeat gained little traction. Though talks aimed at a U.S. Space Shuttle docking with a Soviet Salyut space station had resumed in May 1975, no plans for new U.S.-Soviet manned missions existed when the ASTP Apollo splashed down. Shuttle-Salyut negotiators made progress in 1975-1976, but the U.S. deferred signing an agreement until after the results of the November 1976 election were known.
In May 1977, the sides formally agreed that a Shuttle-Salyut mission should occur. In September 1978, however, NASA announced that talks had ended pending results of a comprehensive U.S. government review. Following the December 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, work toward joint U.S.-Soviet piloted space missions was abandoned on advice from the U.S. Department of State. It would resume a decade later as the Soviet Union underwent radical internal changes that led to its collapse in 1991 and the rebirth of the Soviet space program as the Russian space program.“
-Article from "No Shortage of Dreams” blog: link
Drew Granston: link
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Mission Operations Control Room during the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project by NASA on The Commons
Via Flickr:
An overall view of the Mission Operations Control Room in the Mission Control Center during the joint U.S.-USSR Apollo-Soyuz Test Project docking mission in Earth orbit. The large television monitor shows a view of the Soyuz spacecraft as seen from the Apollo spacecraft during rendezvous and docking maneuvers. Eugene F. Kranz, JSC Deputy Director of Flight Operations, is standing in the foreground. M.P. Frank, the American senior ASTP flight director, is partially obscured on the right. NASA Media Usage Guidelines Credit: NASA/ Image Number: S75-28682 Date: July 17, 1975
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50 years ago… ASTP training
1975, January 14 the Apollo Soyuz Test Project (ASTP) prime crew astronauts suit up for an altitude chamber test at the Kennedy Space Center – Florida. The ASTP prime crew, Thomas Stafford, Vance Brand and Donald Slayton, was announced in January 1973 and NASA re-announced the joint US-USSR flight on January 8, 1975. An altitude chamber test allows NASA engineers and technicians to ensure the Apollo capsule will not leak in space, and helps verify that the environmental control system and all equipment all work as designed. The test was also conducted with support astronaut crew Alan Bean, Ron Evans and Jack Lousma.
Note Thomas Stafford wore a NASA-issued Omega Speedmaster 105.012 chronograph on black Velcro strap for the test. For the actual ASTP-mission, Stafford was allocated NASA Speedmaster chronographs n° 76 and n° 79, which were 145.012 references. During the July 1975 ASTP mission, a total of 11 Omega Speedmaster chronographs were worn as the 2 cosmonauts wore 861 references and the 3 astronauts 321 references.
(Photos: NASA)
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“The spacecraft for the Apollo Soyuz Test Project was offloaded from giant C-5A transport at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Skid Strip today. The Command and Service Modules arrived aboard the transport from the Rockwell International plant at Downey, CA. The spcaecraft modules were taken to the Manned Spacecraft Operations Buildings in the KSC Industrial Area for receiving inspection and checkout. The sign aboard the command module shipping container bore the legend: ‘From A to Soyuz - Apollo/Soyuz - Last and the Best’.”
Date: September 8, 1974
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Ad Astra … LtGeneral Thomas P. Stafford
2024, March 18… USAF LtGeneral former NASA astronaut Thomas Patten Stafford passed away aged 93.
After graduating as an USAF pilot, Stafford finished first in class at the USAF Test Pilot School (class 58C) at Edwards AFB - California.
In 1962, Stafford was selected in NASA Group 2 “ The New Nine ” and he flew in space onboard Gemini VIa, IXa, Apollo 10 and ASTP.
Stafford became Brig General in 1974, Maj General in 1975 and Lt General in April 1978.
In November 1979, USAF LtGeneral Thomas Stafford became member of USA Omega Corporate Board of Directors and has been an important Omega ambassador" !
(Photos: NASA)