The Apollo-Soyuz mission was the first manned space flight
conducted jointly by two nations. The mission started with the Russian Soyuz
launch on July 15, 1975, followed by the U.S. Apollo launch on the same day.
Docking in space of the two craft occurred on July 17, and joint operations were
conducted for two full days. Both spacecraft landed safely and on schedule; the
Soyuz landed in the U.S.S.R. on July 21 and Apollo landed near Hawaii on July
24. The United States and the U.S.S.R. achieved a substantial degree of success
in (1) obtaining flight experience for rendezvous and docking of manned
spacecraft and developing a docking system that would be suitable for use as
standard international system, (2) demonstrating inflight intervehicular crew
transfer, and (3) conducting a series of science and applications experiments.
Twenty-eight science investigations in the fields of Earth resources, Earth
gravity, Earth atmosphere, astronomy, solar science, life sciences and space
processing were conducted during the mission.
During reentry, the American crew was accidentally exposed to nitrogen tetroxide
gas. The potentially harmful nitrogen tetroxide gas resulted from inadvertent
reaction control system (RCS) firings and entered the command module through the
cabin pressure relief valve, which was opened during landing. As a therapeutic
measure, the crew was given 100% oxygen for 15 to 20 minutes aboard the recovery
vessel. All crewmen complained of chest tightness, coughing, a burning sensation
when breathing and an inability to inhale deeply, but made a full recovery from
the gas exposure. The therapy given to the crew potentially affected two life
sciences experiments that were conducted by preflight and postflight blood
sampling and analysis. Despite this impact, scientifically useful results were
obtained in these experiments.
Seven life sciences experiments were conducted during the Apollo-Soyuz
flight. Three experiments examined particle radiation effects on living cells,
three experiments examined the effects of space flight on the human immune
system, and one examined the vestibular
system of killifish.
More specifically, the effects of cosmic particles on living cells were examined
by the observation of the light
flash phenomenon that occurs to astronauts during different orbital
orientations. The Biostack III German experiment extended the studies of
previous flights on the effects of highly charged and energetic (HZE)
particles on biological organisms by evaluating the growth and development
of plant seeds and animal eggs that were contained in the biostack.
The zone-forming
fungi experiment, a joint U.S. and U.S.S.R. experiment, was an attempt to
observe the real-time mutations
caused by HZE particle exposure that might occur in a ring of growing fungal
cells.
Microbial exchange of marker microorganisms between cosmonauts and
astronauts, another joint U.S. and U.S.S.R. experiment, was examined to
determine the level of cross-contamination as a way to understand the balance
between the immune system and infectious microorganisms in the space
environment. In addition, preflight and postflight blood samples were taken from
astronauts to examine in
vitro lymphocyte
and polymorphonuclear leukocytes
response as indicators of cellular immune function.
The swimming behavior of the killifish was filmed during various stages of
the mission to understand how microgravity
effects hatchlings. Killifish hatching and orientation was observed to determine
the function and development of the vestibular system and calcium
metabolism as it related to otolith
development.
Material processing experiments
The material processing experiments conducted on the Apollo-Soyuz Test Flight
consisted of 11 experiments, two of which were biological processing and nine of
which were considered solid materials processing. The biological materials
processing experiments consisted of separating a mixture of biological cells by gel
electrophoresis to observe how cells separate without the limitations of
sedimentation and thermal convection that normally occur during electrophoresis
on the ground. The materials processing experiments were divided into two
groups, namely high-temperature and low-temperature processing. The high
temperature processing included the melting and solidifying of seven sets of
material samples in an electric furnace. The low temperature processing
consisted of one experiment that attempted to grow crystals in water at ambient
temperatures.
Space sciences experiments
The space sciences experiments that were conducted on the Apollo-Soyuz
mission included five astronomy and five Earth studies investigations. The
astronomy experiments ranged from soft x-ray observations which focus on objects
deep in the galaxy to the crystal activation experiments which had implications
for the application of crystal detectors in gamma-ray astronomy. The Earth
studies included the ultraviolet absorption experiment which investigated the
atomic composition of the upper atmosphere to the study of the Earth's
subsurface structure by means of two variations of gravity-field measurements.
In addition, the Earth observation and photography experiment examined the
surface of the Earth and its land and water regions.
Scheld, Herbert W.; Baky, Anwar A.; Boyd, John F.; Eichler,
Victor B.; Fuller, P. M.; Hoffman, Ronald B.; Keefe, J. R.; Kuchnow, K.
P.; Oppenheimer, J. M.; Salinas, Gloria M.; von Baumgarten, R. J.
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Forgotten Founders vs. U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson
Samuel
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First President of the
United States of America
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