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Space History Photo: Historic Handshake

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In space during the joint Russian/American docking mission known as the ASTP the Apollo Commander and the Soyuz Commander make their historic handshake on July 17, 1975. (Image credit: NASA.)

In this historical photo from the U.S. space agency, Apollo Commander, Astronaut Thomas P. Stafford (in foreground) and Soyuz Commander, Cosmonaut Alexei A. Leonov make their historic handshake in space during the joint Russian/American docking mission known as the ASTP, or Apollo Soyuz Test Project. The handshake took place after the hatch to the Universal Docking Adapter (UDA) was opened on July 7, 1975.

Stafford is inside the UDA and Leonov is inside the Soyuz. The UDA was a specially designed docking module that was built by the United States that enabled the two spacecraft to link-up. It was attached to the Apollo Command Module during rendezvous and docking maneuvers. Once docking was complete, the module was pressurized. This grainy image was made from a frame of 16 millimeter motion picture film.

Each weekday, SPACE.com looks back at the history of spaceflight through photos (archive).

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The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is the U.S. government agency in charge of the civilian space program as well as aeronautics and aerospace research. Founded in 1958, NASA is a civilian space agency aimed at exploring the universe with space telescopes,  satellites, robotic spacecraft, astronauts and more. The space agency has 10 major centers based across the U.S. and launches robotic and crewed missions from the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral Florida. It's astronaut corps is based at the Johnson Space Center in Houston. To follow NASA's latest mission, follow the space agency on Twitter or any other social channel, of visit: nasa.gov.