Word: leonov
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...screens that sunlight could be seen glinting off its winglike solar panels. Then came the slight bump as the two ships, now somewhere over the North Atlantic, made contact. "We have succeeded!" Apollo Commander Tom Stafford exulted in awkward Russian. Replying in English, Soyuz's skipper Aleksei Leonov exclaimed, "Soyuz and Apollo are shaking hands. Good show...
Finally, Slayton tugged on a large handle-like latch, and the door swung open, exposing the smiling faces of the two waiting Russians. Stafford called out ebulliently, "Tovarich [friend]!" Leonov's reply: "Very, very happy to see you. How are things...
Stafford and Slayton crawled into the Soyuz and shook hands and exchanged bear hugs with Leonov and his fellow crewman, Valery Kubasov. Then they traded gifts, including flags and commemorative plaques; Leonov, a gifted amateur painter, gave the astronauts sketches he had done of them. After some small talk the four, plus Astronaut Vance Brand back in Apollo, sat back to listen to greetings from their national leaders. Soviet Party Chief Leonid Brezhnev, in a message relayed by mission controllers outside Moscow, hailed the meeting in space as marking a "new page in the history of research." President Ford, sitting...
...shared aboard Soyuz; Stafford bolted down three tubes of soggy borsch, only to resort to three Lomotil pills later. Soon it was show time again; as the lights and TV cameras clicked on for a joint press conference, the crews answered questions relayed from newsmen in Houston and Moscow. Leonov, fielding a question about the relative merits of Soviet and American space food, proved himself a deft diplomat. Said he: "It is not what you eat but with whom you eat that is important...
...then redocked briefly in a retest of the docking system, but this time the hatches remained closed. Before long the ships separated for the last time. As Soyuz pulled ahead under a gentle thrust from its rockets, the spacemen bade each other a final radio farewell. "Mission accomplished," said Leonov. "Good show," said Stafford...