Artist impression of the Apollo-Soyuz rendezvous in space. The Soviet Union's Soyuz spacecraft (background) & the American's Apollo craft (foreground) docked in space on the 17th July 1975. The programme was intended to test a jointly designed international docking mechanism. The Apollo spacecraft was launched on the 15th April & returned on 24th April 1975. The US crew consisted of Thomas P. Stafford, Vance D. Brand & Donald K. Slayton. Aleksey A. Leonov & Valerii N. Kubasov made up the Soviet crew.