The Partnership: A History of the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project
Rivals And Friends
[251] In the dozen years
that had followed Yuri Gagarin's flight, the astronauts and
cosmonauts had met a number of times. But these first meetings had
been shadowed by the cold war. John Glenn and Gherman Titov had been
the first rival spacemen to meet and exchange views, at the May 1962
COSPAR gathering in Washington. After the two men and their wives
toured the capital and made a social call on President Kennedy at the
White House, the space travelers held a news conference. Titov was
circumspect in answering questions about his Vostok craft and would
discuss space cooperation only in the context of
disarmament.13
Three years passed before the next meeting. In
June 1965, a very cool handshake was exchanged by three Americans -
Vice President Hubert H. Humphrey, astronauts James A. McDivitt, and
Edward H. White - and Yuri Gagarin. This encounter at a Paris Air
Show luncheon took place after a formal meeting between these men had
failed to materialize.14 In September of the same year, Gordon Cooper and Pete
Conrad had a much warmer conversation with Leonov and Belyayev at an
international meeting in Athens. As they exchanged lapel pins, the
men agreed that they would have to meet again and compare notes about
space flight.15
As the years passed, the cosmonauts and
astronauts began to socialize more freely. At the 1967 Paris Air
Show, Mike Collins and Dave Scott drank a vodka toast with cosmonauts
Belyayev and Feoktistov, and Scott called for "greater cooperation
between the United States and the Soviet Union." To which, Belyayev
replied, "Yes, in space."16 In 1969, McDivitt, Scott, and Schweickart gave a tour
of the Apollo 8 command module to cosmonauts Shatalov and Yeliseyev,
who in turn treated the Americans to vodka and caviar served aboard a
Yak-40 airliner being displayed at the Soviets' Paris Air Show
pavilion.17
A month later, in July 1969, Apollo 8 commander Frank
Borman and his family were given an extensive sightseeing trip in the
Soviet Union. Titov, Feoktistov, and Beregovoy escorted the Bormans
around Star City and other space facilities. During their visit,
Borman renewed the subject of cooperation, mentioning the possibility
of joint missions in very general terms.18 American astronauts hosted a reciprocal goodwill trip
for Beregovoy and Feoktistov at the end of October. During their two
weeks of crisscrossing the United States, they visited an American
Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics conference at Anaheim,
California, had a brief chat with President Nixon, and were guests of
honor at a dinner in Houston thrown by 30 astronauts.19
By the time NASA and the Soviet Academy of
Sciences began talking about a rendezvous and docking mission,
meetings between astronauts and [252] cosmonauts were
almost commonplace. During 1970-1971, a half dozen meetings took
place, in addition to Stafford's trip to Moscow for the funeral of
the Soyuz 11 crew and his subsequent visit to Star City in October.
The atmosphere was considerably more friendly than in the
Mercury-Vostok days. For example, when V. A. Shatalov was in Houston
in 1972, he visited with Dave Scott and his family in their home,
where they compared notes on such topics as child rearing and
education. And when Scott led a delegation to Moscow in June 1973 as
Lunney's Technical Assistant, Shatalov and seven other cosmonauts
gave the astronaut and two members of his team a complete tour of the
facilities at Star City, including an opportunity to examine the
Salyut trainer.20 Though from different social, economic, and political
worlds, the astronauts and cosmonauts had much in common, both as
professionals and human beings.
13. "Glenn, Titov Get
Together," Washington
Star, 3 May 1962; and "Transcript of
News Conference of Titov and Glenn," New York Times, 4 May
1962.
14. "Astronauts Take
Paris Spotlight," New York
Times, 20 June 1965; and "Space Twins
Steal Some Red Thunder," Washington
Daily News, 19 June 1965.
15. "Russian Cosmonaut
Greets Cooper and Conrad in Athens," Washington Post, 18
Sept. 1965.
16. "Space Rivals Drink
Toast," Baltimore Sun, 27 May 1967.
17. Wade St. Clair to
Julian F. Scheer, memo, "Report on NASA Participation at 1969 Paris
Air Show," 12 June 1969. The USIA press attaché attended the
meetings between the astronauts and cosmonauts and briefed the press
on these sessions. For press reactions, see "U.S. and Russian
Spacemen Meet," Baltimore
Sun, 3 June 1969; and Clyde H.
Farnsworth, "Astronauts Hold Paris Rendezvous," New York Times, 3 June
1969.
18. Frank Borman to
Ezell, 20 Aug. 1975; "Borman Hopes for Joint Mission in Space with
Soviets during 70s," Washington
Post, 4 July 1969; and Bernard
Gwertzman, "Podgorny Meets Borman, Voices Hope for Successful Moon
Trip," New York Times, 10 July 1969.
19. "Cordial Cosmonauts
Field Questions of U.S. Press," Christian Science Monitor, 28 Oct. 1969; and Donnie Radcliffe, "Cosmonauts Are
Lionized," Washington Evening
Star, 1 Nov. 1969.
20. Interview, David R.
Scott-Ezell, 21 Aug. 1974; and Scott to Lunney, memo, "ASTP Mission
to Moscow, June-July, 1973," 31 July 1973. For press reports on
meetings between astronauts and cosmonauts, see "Admirers Mob
Armstrong in Leningrad," Baltimore
Sun, 26 May 1970; "Moscow Chill Mars
Visit by Armstrong," Chicago
Tribune, 2 June 1970; "Soviet
Spacecraft Studies Earth Resources," New York Times, 6 Oct.
1970; James Stanton, "Astronaut Calls Space Flights Key to Amity,"
Philadelphia Evening
Bulletin, 5 Oct. 1970; "2 Cosmonauts
Arrive Here on Goodwill Trip," Washington Post, 19
Oct.1970; Paul W. Valentine, "2 Soviet Cosmonauts Orbit City on
Goodwill Tour of U.S.," Washington
Post, 20 Oct. 1970; "Astronauts All,"
i, 3 June 1971; and Walter Sullivan, "58 Layers Found in Lunar
Sample," New York Times, 21 Sept. 1971.
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