15 Jul 1975

1975: Apollo-Soyuz Astronauts, Thomas Stafford, Vance Brand, and Donald “Deke” Slayton launched from Cape Canaveral to meet up with the Soyuz 19 cosmonauts. Mr. Slayton, at 51, became the oldest man to fly in space. He was also one of the original seven astronauts. This Apollo mission, when it ended on 24 July, was the last US manned space mission until the first space shuttle launch in 1981.
Apollo–Soyuz was the first crewed international space mission, carried out jointly by the United States and the Soviet Union in July 1975. Millions of people around the world watched on television as an American Apollo spacecraft docked with a Soviet Soyuz capsule. The project, and its “handshake” in space, was a symbol of détente between the two superpowers amid the Cold War.