Russian Ambassador to the United States Anatoly Antonov penned an article dated July 15 for the current issue of Air & Space magazine, in commemoration of the 45th anniversary of what became known as the most famous “handshake in space” — Apollo-Soyuz. Both spacecraft were successfully launched on July 15, 1975, and the docking took place two days later.
Antonov writes, “Interesting fact: Hatches between the Soyuz and Apollo spacecraft were opened when the ships were passing over the Elbe River in Germany, which had been the site of a famous meeting between Soviet and American troops in April 1945, when the two countries were fighting together against Nazi Germany. [Soyuz cosmonaut Alexei] Leonov later noted, ‘Our fathers met on the Elbe in 1945, and their sons met over the Elbe in 1975. That was some kind of providence.’”