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The final mission of the Apollo program was docking in space with a Russian Soyuz
capsule. In July 1975 three Americans in an Apollo craft and two Russians in a
Soyuz capsule conducted joint activities for nearly two days. Thomas P.
Stafford, Vance D. Brand and Donald K. Slayton were the three American
astronauts and the Cosmonauts were Alexey A. Leonov and Valery N. Kubasov.
Both craft were launched on July 15, 1975. Rendezvous occurred at 12:12pm 
(EDT) July 17, 1974. The crews exchanged commemorative flags and other gifts on
live television. Though many people felt this mission only served a public
relations role, there were a number of technological breakthroughs. The most
important was the knowledge gained from docking two completely different
spacecraft, each with unique atmospheric conditions.
More importantly, the mission opened the door to future cooperation between
the Soviet Union (Russia) and the United States. Much was learned about what
would be necessary in order for astronauts and cosmonauts to work together in
space. The language barrier was a key issue. It was learned that the best
arrangement was for the Americans to speak Russian and the Russians to speak
English.
Even though it would be six years before Americans would return to space
aboard the Space Shuttle, Apollo-Soyuz set the tone for the future of human
space exploration. American astronauts have since gained invaluable knowledge by
living on the Mir Space Station and Russians will be
essential in the building and running of the ISS.
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