On May 24, 1972, the Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR, A. Kosygin, and the President of the United States, R. Nixon, signed in Moscow the Agreement between the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and the United States of America Concerning Cooperation in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space for Peaceful Purposes. The main objectives of the program were to create a promising universal rescue vehicle, to develop engineering systems and methods for joint flight management, and to conduct joint scientific research and experiments. A universal docking unit, known as a petal or androgynous unit, was specifically designed for the mission.
On July 15 of 1975, at 15:20 Moscow time, the Soyuz-19 spacecraft was launched from the Baikonur cosmodrome with cosmonauts Alexei Leonov and Valery Kubasov on board. Then, seven and a half hours later, the Apollo spacecraft was launched from Cape Canaveral (USA) with astronauts Thomas Stafford, Vance Brand and Donald Slayton. During the spacecraft approach phase, in the course of the preparation for each maneuver, the control was provided by the reaction system and digital autopilot of the Apollo spacecraft. On July 17 of 1975, at 18:14 Moscow time, the final phase of the approach began. The docking of the Soyuz-19 and Apollo spacecraft was registered at 19:09 Moscow time, and the joint compression was made at 19:12 Moscow time. The spacecraft docked, thereby becoming a prototype of the future international space station. After checking the air tightness on the Soyuz-19 spacecraft, the hatch between the descent module and the service module was opened, and a precise air tightness check started. Then, the tunnel between the Apollo docking module and the Soyuz service module was inflated up to 250 mmHg. The cosmonauts opened the hatch of the Soyuz service module. A few minutes later, the hatch of the Apollo docking module was opened. The symbolic handshake between the ship commanders took place at 22:19 Moscow time. The next day, the cosmonauts performed the second intravehicular transfer.
The docked flight of the spacecraft lasted 43 hours, 54 minutes, and 11 seconds. The spacecraft were undocked at 15:03 Moscow time on July 19. Having completed the flight programs, the crew of the Soyuz 19 successfully landed on July 21 of 1975 near the city of Arkalyk in Kazakhstan, while the Apollo command module alighted in the Pacific Ocean on July 25.
The stamp features the docking of the Soyuz-19 and Apollo spacecraft in outer space on July 15 of 1975, with the Earth in the background.
| Paper |
Printing method |
Perforation |
Format of the stamp |
Edition |
| Self-adhesive |
Offset + security system |
Die cut 12 |
round d-30 mm |
216 thousand stamps |