Light metal alloy with parts of “flown” metal
Soviet Union, 1975
4 medals with the portraits of the ASTP crew: Deke Slayton, Vance Brand, Alexey Leonov, Valeri Kubasov
One medal with the motif of ‘handshake in space’ by Alexey Leonov
Diameter: each 40 mm
Good condition
Provenance: Collection Andora, Germany
Five medals commemorating the ASTP mission, which marks the unification of the 1975, which were strictly separated until then by the competing space programs of the superpowers USA and USSR

The Apollo Soyuz Test Project (ASTP) was a Russian-Soviet mission where a Russian (Soyuz) and an American (Apollo) space craft docked in space. The mission was implemented in 1975 and symbolizes the unification of the until 1975 strictly separated and competing space programs of the two superpowers.

This convolute of five commemorative medals is a space memorabilia marking this important event in the history of aerospace and the political relations of the US and the USSR. Four medals depict the portraits of the four spacemen of the ASTP mission, Deke Slayton, Vance Brand, Alexey Leonov and Valeri Kubasov. The portraits are each flanked by the name of the spaceman in Cyrillic, the year 1975 and the lettering ‘Soyuz-Apollo’ in mint. The reverse of the medals bear the signatures of the spacemen. The fifth medal depicts the famous handshake in space, when Soyuz docked Apollo and the spacemen Thomas Stafford and Alexey Leonov shook hands. The five medals were minted of light metal alloy with parts of ‘flown’ metal in the year of the docking, in 1975.



Two commemorative coins of Soviet space missions are added to the lot. One of the coins was minted for the 20th anniversary of the first manned flight of Yuri Gagarin into space. The recto displays Yuri Gagarin on the Salyut station with the Soyuz spacecraft and verso the years 1961 and 1981. The second coin was minted for the 20th anniversary of the first flight of a woman into space, the Russian Valentina Tereshkova. The coin displays recto Valentina Tereshkova in a space suit and verso the date 16-19.VI.1963. They are each 30 mm in diameter.



The medals are in good condition with minimal signs of wear. They are each 40 mm in diameter.

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