History Professor Asif Siddiqi, Ph.D., said the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project occurred at a time when a partnership between bitter competitors would seem unlikely, in this article on the anniversary of the first international human spaceflight.
The handshake, which occurred 50 years ago this July 17, defined the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project, the first international human spaceflight. That simple symbol of partnership between bitter competitors remains an enduring legacy of the mission.
“It’s amazing to think that two diametrically opposed countries with different systems and cultures, essentially ready to destroy each other, can somehow cooperate and do this highly technical, complicated mission,” said Asif Siddiqi, a professor of history at Fordham University and an expert on Russian space history.
A generation after the orbital handclasp, the Soviets and the United States would come together to build the [International Space Station]. The aging space outpost’s days are finite, and there are no immediate plans for Russia and the U.S. to sustain their cooperation in human spaceflight. The U.S. also sees itself as competing with China for dominance in space. But experts like Dr. Siddiqi see reasons for hope on the 50th anniversary of the Apollo-Soyuz mission.
“Whenever people tell me that this would never happen today, I always think, Well, that’s what people said in the late ’60s,” Dr. Siddiqi said., a professor of history at Fordham University and an expert on Russian space history.
