It was the final flight of the Apollo program that broke new ground in 1975, when two Cold War superpowers came together in an unprecedented cooperative mission in July of 1975.

It was the first spaceflight in which spacecraft from different nations docked in space, bringing together a U.S. Apollo spacecraft carrying a crew of three to dock with a Russian Soyuz spacecraft with its crew of two. The Cold War rivals met in Earth's orbit 35 years ago, on July 17, 1975, when the American Apollo docked with the Soviet Soyuz.

Historic photos and video provided by NASA show the docking and historic handshake as NASA astronauts Tom Stafford, Vance Brand, and Deke Slayton meet Russian cosmonauts Aleksey Leonov and Valeriy Kubasov.

Pictured is the joint crew for the 1975 Apollo Soyuz Test Project, with astronaut Thomas P. Stafford (left), commander of the American crew; cosmonaut Aleksey A. Leonov (standing on right), commander of the Soviet crew; astronaut Donald K. Slayton (seated on left), docking module pilot of the American crew; astronaut Vance D. Brand (seated in center), command module pilot of the American crew; and cosmonaut Valeriy N. Kubasov (seated on right), engineer on the Soviet crew.
http://news.cnet.com/2300-19514_3-100041...=topImage3

I can't get it, why in the US are astronauts and in Russia there are cosmonauts. Heck.

i can't get it either :s