Apollo Launch (Apollo-Soyuz Test Project) Poster

At 3:50 pm EDT July 15, 1975, 7 hr, 30 min, after the Soyuz launch-a Saturn IB flawlessly lifted the Apollo spacecraft from Kennedy Space Centre's launch complex 39, carrying Apollo commander Thomas P. Stafford, command-module pilot Vance D. Brand, and docking-module pilot Donald K. Slayton. Primary ASTP mission objectives were to evaluate the docking and undocking of an Apollo spacecraft with a Soyuz, and determine the adequacy of the onboard orientation lights and docking target; evaluate the ability of astronauts and cosmonauts to make inter-vehicular crew transfers and the ability of spacecraft systems to support the transfers: evaluate the Apollo's capability of maintaining attitude-hold control of the docked vehicles and performing attitude manoeuvres; measure quantitatively the effect of weightlessness on the crews' height and lower limb volume, according to length of exposure to zero-g; and obtain relay and direct synchronous-satellite navigation tracking data to determine their accuracy for application to Space Shuttle navigation-system design. The objectives were successfully completed, and the mission was adjudged successful on August 15, 1975.