With Russia’s launch of its major contribution to the
International Space Station imminent, NASA today prepares to mark Saturday’s 25th anniversary of an earlier cooperative human space flight endeavor — the Apollo Soyuz Test Project (ASTP).  ASTP was designed to test rendezvous and docking system compatibility for American and Soviet spacecraft and open the way for future joint human flights.
 
During the nine-day mission launched July 15, 1975,
astronauts Thomas P. Stafford, Vance D. Brand and Donald K.
Slayton rendezvoused and docked their Apollo spacecraft with the Soyuz 19 spacecraft with cosmonauts Aleksey Leonov and Valeriy
Kubasov onboard.
 
    Today on its Video File feed, NASA Television will air
historical footage of mission activities, including the docking of the two spacecraft. The NASA Video File normally airs at noon, 3 p.m., 6 p.m., 9 p.m. and midnight Eastern Time.
 
    The NASA History Office today introduces an ASTP web page
available on the Internet at:
 
  http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/astp/index.html
 
The site contains a variety of ASTP historical information,
including mission video and still images, biographical sketches of key personnel, and primary-source documentary material about the flight.
 
NASA Television is available on GE-2, transponder 9C at 85 degrees West longitude, with vertical polarization.  Frequency is on
3880.0 megahertz, with audio on 6.8 megahertz.