History was created in July 1975 during the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project, which was being headed by Russian and American flight commanders, Aleksey Leonov and Tom Stafford. The joint space venture helped making relations better between the Soviet Union and the US. After hiatus of four decades, both the men reunited to give an exclusive interview to RT.

It can be said that the project has helped improve relations between the two nations. Now, there is no space race between them. Marking the anniversary of the project, the two legendary spacemen shared their views during the interview.

Tom Stafford shared that when the project took place that was the height of the Cold War. But the political tensions had never affected into their jobs. After working together for 46 hours, the historic handshake took place.

During that project, crews carried out joint scientific and technical experiments. They even exchanged gifts and signed certificated and also visited each other’s spacecrafts. Both the crews, American and Soviet, used to converse both in English and Russian and had food together.

Since then, the ships’ commanders have been close friends. In fact, Stafford has named his grandson after Leonov – Aleksey. “We talk on the phone almost every day. And sometimes we meet each other in America or in Russia. My home is Tom Stafford’s home”, affirmed Leonov.