50 Years Ago the Handshakes were plentiful!

By now everyone knows this week marks the 50th anniversary of the first joint US/USSR spaceflight, where America's last Apollo spacecraft docked with a Russian Soyuz spacecraft, ushering in a new era of co-operation in space.

It certainly was a memorable moment for me, as that was the same day I met an astronaut for the first time.

In June of 1975 I built a model of the Apollo Soyuz Test project. It depicted the Apollo spacecraft docked with a Soyuz craft. This model ended up being used by the CTV network in their coverage of the mission, and the moment when astronaut Tom Stafford and Russian cosmonaut Alexei Leonov shook hands in earth orbit.

Astronaut Scott Carpenter joined CTV newscaster Harvey Kirch for coverage of the mission, and that's where I met Scott.

This is a photo of myself with Scott and Harvey at the CTV studio after coverage of the first international handshake in space.

After the photo was taken, it was off to lunch with Scott, Harvey and a few CTV staff.

It certainly is a day to remember.....July 17, 1975.