By Ramesh Jaura
BERLIN | NEW YORK (IDN) – A Soviet cosmonaut and an American astronaut shook hands high above the planet Earth, on July 17, 1975, where the Soviet spaceship Soyuz-19 and the U.S. spacecraft Apollo had met and docked.
In a message of greeting, the Soviet leadership described the "joint flight of the Soviet and US spaceships" as "a major step in the development of Soviet-American scientific and technological cooperation" opening up "new prospects for various countries to work together in the peaceful exploration of outer space".