Word: stafford
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...recovery carrier New Orleans. The only visible problem aboard the craft as it returned from its historic space rendezvous with a Soviet Soyuz was minor. Some of the parachute shrouds caught on the Apollo's nose and capsized it; that left Astronauts Thomas Stafford, Vance Brand and Donald ("Deke") Slayton hanging face down from the straps holding them in their contour-fitted couches for several minutes until flotation balloons could right the capsule. But when they finally climbed out of the Apollo 45 minutes later, after it had been hoisted aboard the New Orleans, the astronauts appeared no more...
...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...
Soggy Borsch. Their first act of showbiz détente out of the way, the astronauts and cosmonauts settled down to other activities, including a meal four of them 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...
...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...
...four television cameras began sending pictures of the history-making rendezvous. Plainly visible outside Apollo's left window were the curved earth, one of the large finger-like petals of the docking module and, off in the distance, the winged Soyuz. After a few moments of maneuvering, Stafford nudged Apollo up against Soyuz so gently that there was barely a jolt as the three interlacing fingers on each ship locked together. Later at a briefing in Moscow, one of the Soviet controllers remarked that the Russians had been especially anxious during the last critical moments because, he said, films...