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Cape Canaveral, Florida, July 7: Five years ago, it was considered impossible, a dream. But on July 15, American astronauts and Russian cosmonauts are to rocket into orbit to start an historic joint space flight, appropriately labelled a mission of “high-flying detente”.
Much symbolism and prestige will be involved on this first international flight of the world’s leading spacefaring nations, once keen rivals in space exploration until U.S. astronauts landed on the moon. Neither wants to fail in the global spotlight that will follow every moment.
It won’t be just a “handshake in the sky”, say the astronauts and cosmonauts, but a mission that hopefully will lead to future co-operative flights in large space stations and perhaps to the planets.
The flight is scheduled to start at 8:20 a.m. (17-50 IST) with the launching of the two cosmonauts in a Soyuz spacecraft from the Soviet Union.
If there are no problems, three Apollo astronauts will ride an Apollo spacecraft away from Cape Canaveral 7.5 hours later.
With the more sophisticated Apollo performing all the critical manoeuvres, the astronauts will pursue the Soyuz through the skies for two days, moving in for a link-up at 12:15 p.m. (22:45 IST) on Thursday July 17, 224 km above West Germany.
Three hours later, both ends of an airlock tunnel connecting the vehicles will be opened and the American Commander, Air Force Brig. Gen. Thomas Stafford, and the Russian Commander, Air Force Col. Alexei Leonov, will shake hands.
It will be a moment of high emotion, not only for its symbolism, but because these two men have become fast friends during two years of training. Both believe that through flights like this, high in space, their two nations can achieve detente on earth.
