The Space Race, part 5, We get to the Moon

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We get there and how the paths split and meet gain
Apollo 11: Earthrise


 Apollo 11 was launched by a Saturn V rocket on July 16, 1969. The commander of the mission was Neil Armstrong, with lunar module Eagle pilot Buzz Aldrin, and command module Columbia pilot Michael Collins. The trip to the Moon took about 3 days to achieve the lunar orbit. Armstrong and Aldrin moved to the Lunar Module Eagle and Collins remained back in the Command Module. The have landed in the Sea of Tranquility and took the rest for a 6 hours before Armstrong set his famous first step on the Moon on July 21, 1969. Aldrin joined him after about 20 minutes. They have spent about two hours on the surface and launched and performed rendezvoused back with Columbia. The have returned safely to Earth and splashed down on July 24, 1969.
Apollo 11 foot 
Apollo program: Planned landings followed by Apollo 12 (November 1969), except in flight failure by Apollo 13 (April 1970, Apollo 13), but continued with following missions: Apollo 14 (February 1971), Apollo 15 (July 1971), Apollo 16 (April 1972), and Apollo 17 (December 1972). All together 6 successful human landings on the lunar surface.      

Soviet N1 rocket project was finally cancelled in 1976. Soviet decided to focus on the orbital space stations. They launched 6 more Soyuz flights after Soyuz 3 during 1969 and 1970. After that they launched first space station Salyut 1 on April 19, 1970. Soyuz 10 crew tried to dock with it but failed. Soyuz 11 crew successfully docked on June 7 and they spent 22 day stay record on the station. However the crew became the second in flight fatality during their reentry. Shortly after their undocking the spacecraft's cabin lost pressure and the crew were asphyxiated. The disaster occurred due to cabin pressure valve that allowed the air to vent out from the cabin. The crew didn't have pressure suits, so they didn't have any chance to survive. Other flights were delayed to solve the safety problem.

But also US didn't stay behind and they launched the orbital station Skylab 1 on May 14, 1973 (Skylab). The Skylab was damaged during the ascent to orbit, losing one of its solar panels. Skylab stayed in orbit for 6 years until July 11, 1979. 

In May 1972 US president R.M. Nixon and Soviet Premier L. Brezhnev negotiated improvement in the relationships and rather than the competition the cooperation would take the place. 
Apollo - soyuz test project (ASTP) was joint mission to dock the US Apollo craft with Soviet Soyuz. US designed a docking module for the Apollo that was able to dock with any other crafts. The mission started with launching Soyuz 19 on July 15, 1975 and Apollo was launched with the docking module 6 hours after them. The two craft docked on July 17 at 16:19 UTC. 
The famous handshake

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