Sources and Research Materials

This essay is intended to serve as a guide to the sources used in preparing this history. As such, it is not designed to be an inclusive catalogue. For those who are interested in how we researched this book, for those who would like at some future date to follow in our steps, or for those who would attempt a contemporary history of their own, we would offer this road map to the materials from which we have woven the story of the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project.

From the standpoint of sources, this book can be divided into two parts-chapters I through III; and the prologue and chapters IV through the epilogue. In the former, we used the traditional sources familiar to the researcher-books, periodical and newspaper articles, and occasional primary documents from within the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Whenever possible we made an attempt to use both Russian and English language publications in an effort to present a balanced view of the “Years Before,” “Dryden and Blagonravov,” and “Routes to Space Flight.” A number of books were used over and over again in writing these background chapters:

• Astashenkov, P. T. Akademik S. P. Korolev. Moscow, 1969. (Available in English as Academician S. P. Korolev, Biography. Air Force Foreign Technology Division-HC-23-542-70.)
• Daniloff, Nicholas. The Kremlin and the Cosmos. New York, 1972.
• Frutkin, Arnold W. International Cooperation in Space. Englewood Cliffs, N.J., 1965.
• Green, Constance McLaughlin, and Lomask, Milton. Vanguard: A History: NASA SP-4202, Washington, 1970.
• Harvey, Dodd L., and Ciccoritti, Linda C. U.S.-Soviet Cooperation in Space. Coral Gables, Fla., 1974.
• Krieger, F. J. Behind the Sputniks: A Survey of Soviet Space Sciences. Washington, 1958.
• Logsdon, John M. The Decision to Go to the Moon: Project Apollo and the National Interest. Cambridge, Mass., and London, 1970.
• Narimanov, G. S., ed. The Conquest of Space in the USSR. NASA TTF-15,678, Washington, 1974. (Translation of Osvoyeniye kosmicheskogo prostranstva v SSSR [1972] . Moscow, 1974.)
• Petrov, G. I., ed. Osvoenie kosmicheskogo prostva v SSSR: ofitsial'nye soobscheniya TASS i materialy tsentral'noi pechati Oktyabr', 1967-1970 gg. Moscow, 1971. (Available in English as Conquest of Outer Space in the USSR: Official Announcements by TASS and Material Published in the National Press from October 1967 to 1970. NASA TTF-725, New Delhi, 1973.)
• Riabchikov, Evgeny. Russians in Space. Translated by Guy V. Daniels. Garden City, N.Y., 1971. (An official view of the Soviet space program prepared under the direction of Novosti Press and published in the United States by Doubleday and Co.)
• Rosholt, Robert L. An Administrative History of NASA, 1958-1963. NASA SP-4101, Washington, 1966
• Skuridin, G. A., ed. Mastery of Outer Space in the USSR, 1957-1967. NASA TTF-773, 1975. (Translation of Osvoyeniye kosmicheskogo prestranstva v SSSR, 1957-1967 gg. Moscow, 1971.)
• Smolders, Peter. Soviets in Space: The Story of the Salyut and the Soviet Approach to Present and Future Space Travel. Translated by Marian Powell. Guildford and London, 1973.
• Swenson, Loyd S., Jr., Grimwood, James M., and Alexander, Charles C. This New Ocean: A History of Project Mercury. NASA SP-4201, Washington, 1966.
• Umansky, S. P. Chelovek na komisheskoy orbite. Moscow, 1975. (Available in English as Man in Space Orbit. NASA TTF-15973.)
• U.S., Congress, Senate, Committee on Aeronautical and Space Sciences. Documents on International Aspects of the Exploration and Use of Outer Space, 1954-1962. 88th Cong., 1st sess., 1963.
• __. International Cooperation and Organization for Outer Space. 89th Cong., 1st sess., 1965.
• __. Soviet Space Programs, 1962-1965: Goals and Purposes, Achievements, Plans, and International Implications. 89th Cong., 2d sess., 1966.
• __. Soviet Space Programs, 1966-70: Goals and Purposes, Organization, Resources, Facilities and Hardware, Manned and Unmanned Flight Programs, Bioastronautics, Civil and Military Applications, Projections of Future Plans, Attitudes toward International Cooperation and Space Law. 92d Cong., 1st sess., 1971.
• __. Soviet Space Programs, 1971: A Supplement to the Corresponding Report Covering the Period 1966-70. 92d Cong., 2d sess., 1971. Soviet Space Programs, 1971-75 Overview, Facilities and Hardware, Manned and Unmanned Flight Programs, Bioastronautics, Civil and Military Applications, Projections of Future Plans, Vols. I and II. 94th Cong., 2d sess., 1976.
• __. Soviet Space Programs: Organization, Plans, Goals, and International Implications. 87th Cong., 2d Sess., 1962
• Vladimirov, Leonid. The Russian Space Bluff. Translated by David Floyd. London, 1971.

We should also call attention to the two major Soviet publications on the joint mission: Rukopozhatie v kosmose [Handshake in space] (Moscow, 1975), a collection of Soviet news accounts describing the joint mission published by Izvestiya (also available as “Handshake in Space,” NASA TTF 17045); and Konstantin D. Bushuyev, ed., Soyuz i Apollon, rasskazivayut sovetskie uchenie, inzheneriy i kosmonavtiyuchastniki somestnikh rabot s amerikanskimi spetsialistami [Soyuz and Apollo, related by Soviet scientists, engineers, and cosmonauts-participants of the joint work with American specialists] (Moscow, 1976), a collection of essays written by the Soviet Working Group chairmen and other leading participants in the mission published on the first anniversary of the 15 July 1975 launch. The following periodicals and newspapers were used repeatedly:

• Aviation Week and Space Technology
• Baltimore Sun
• Department of State Bulletin
• Houston Chronicle
• Izvestiva [The (latest) news]
• Krasnaya Zvezda [Red star]
• Missiles and Rockets
• Nauka i Zhin' [Science and Life]
• New York Times
• Pravda [Truth]
• Space Business Daily
• Trud [Labor]
• Wall Street Journal
• Washington Post
• Washington Star

In the prologue, chapters IV through XI, and the epilogue, we have relied upon two types of primary sources-official NASA documents and oral history materials. An examination of the variety of primary materials will give the reader a better understanding of the documentation we have left behind at the History Office of the Johnson Space Center (JSC).

When we arrived in Houston in the spring of 1974, work was in full swing on ASTP. Since we planned to observe the negotiations and testing activities as time permitted, James M. Grimwood, JSC Historian, recommended that we keep a record of the events we witnessed. We quickly evolved a scheme for log notes numerically filed from 1 to 65, which were, in effect, after-action reports. These notes, which ranged from transcribed transactions of Glynn Lunney’s tag-up meetings to reports on meetings to ephemera collected during the joint sessions (e.g., agenda, lists of delegates, and invitations to leisure activities) to transcriptions of interviews, served as an aide mémoire for the time when we began to write about the events we witnessed. Simultaneously, we began to collect documentation that would be necessary to write the history.

Over the years since the establishment of the History Office at JSC, Grimwood and his able assistant, archivist, and editor, Sally D. Gates, have cultivated a sense of history at the center. Houston participants who keep their own “desk archives” relating to a particular project have been encouraged to send these non-official copies of documents to the History Office, which maintains unofficial but valuable working archives relating to the history of manned space flight. Unlike the official record copies that are retired to the Federal Records Center at Forth Worth, Texas, these items, mainly photocopies, are in effect pre-screened for historical value and are readily at hand to the official historians. If we had been trying to write the same history from documents at the Federal Records Center, it would have taken years. When we arrived at JSC, Gates had already sorted out a large number of ASTP documents as part of an ongoing effort to segregate materials according to project as time is available for her to do so. While these materials were not arranged in any fashion, this group of letters, memoranda, telexes, and minutes of meetings formed a basis for our files.

Among the materials Gates had collected were a group of documents covering the period October 1970 to May 1972, which had been sent to the History Office by René A. Berglund prior to his retirement in early 1974. Thus, we had a large body of documents waiting for us, all of which were considered by those who had been working on ASTP to be of primary importance. The first question that faced us was how best to organize these materials. We decided to separate Working Group documents (minutes, reports, test activities, and data) from correspondence. From Hugh M. Scott of NASA and Jerry Siemers and Harry Hall of Boeing,^* we learned that Boeing was maintaining a data file of all materials generated for or at meetings-agenda, briefings, technical documents exchanged, photographs and drawings exchanged, joint communiques, ASTP documents, Interacting Equipment Documents, and Interacting Equipment Revision Notices. Using their data file, we established our own files for each meeting including the earlier meetings (before July 1972) for which Boeing had not been responsible. Since the joint meetings were the major feature in the organization and functioning of this project and since all other activities were organized with these meetings in mind, this filing arrangement gave us a systematic method of keeping track of Working Group activities. When the project was completed, we had a compilation of the major documents prepared by the two sides. Whenever possible, we acquired copies of draft documents as well. A complete list of the numbered ASTP project documents is given in attachment 1. Attachment 2 provides an example of a data file.

Our second task was the organization of the correspondence created by ASTP. After considerable trial and error, we reverted to a simple chronological arrangement for these communications. However, we did create three correspondence files that are not included in this general chronological arrangement. First, the correspondence between the Apollo Spacecraft Program Office (ASPO) and the spacecraft contractor, Rockwell International, is highly technical, dealing mainly with design changes, production progress, component availability, and other such information related to preparing the command and service module (CSM) and the docking module (DM). Correspondence relating to public affairs activities is organized separately, as well. This material was collected with the help of Robert J. Shafer and his secretary, Patsy Respess. We selected these data from John P. Donnelly’s and Shafer’s ASTP files at Headquarters, and Respess and Evelyn L. Taylor assisted by copying nearly 1500 pages of correspondence and items relating to the negotiation of the Public Affairs Plan. Bennet James and John Riley at JSC provided additional materials to help us complete our collection of pertinent public affairs documents. The third group of materials we segregated from the general ASTP correspondence related to the scientific payload.

The documents that make up the correspondence files were obtained from a variety of sources, such as retired reading files. Throughout NASA there exist unofficial and official copies of most correspondence. At JSC. copies of correspondence are distributed to the appropriate offices at the center concerned with its contents. (A memorandum, for example, addressed to “Distribution” would be circulated among various individuals and/or offices at the discretion of the author.) The Center Director would receive all policy and much top level management correspondence from within the agency, and his staff systematically would gather, copy, and circulate these items to the Director and his staff in the Director’s Daily Reading File. Once these files had served their function of keeping management informed, they were routinely retired to the History Office.

For our ASTP archives, more detailed files were obtained from the Apollo Spacecraft Program Office, where Betty Cornett, Mary F. Crocker, and Betty Sue Fedderson of Glynn Lunney’s staff kept track of the day-to-day aspects of the project. Lunney’s files were the most useful to us since much of their contents was written from the vantage point of the Project Manager. Key materials were brought together in these files, representing the documents that Lunney and his staff thought to be the most important. More routine materials and all official record copies were filed in the ASPO Correspondence and Records Office. We owe a debt of thanks to Virginia Trotter who guided us through that maze of documents, permitting us to borrow armloads of folders at a time.

Another boon to our document collection came when we were placed on the distribution list for all correspondence sent from the Apollo Program Office. In turn, this office also distributed the correspondence it received. Starting early in April 1974, we had a reading file of our own with which we could keep abreast of current project activities. After the mission, the Working Group chairmen and other participants sent us boxes of their personal reading files and other working materials. We sorted through these, weeding out the duplicates and the materials that were too detailed. Exercising historical judgment, we tried to preserve copies of all items that we used in our source notes and any additional materials that might help future historians who would wish to pursue a particular point in more detail.

These JSC materials were supplemented by documents acquired from NASA Headquarters. George Low and his secretary, Shirley Malloy, were very gracious in sending us copies of such pertinent materials as trip reports from his files. Secretary Donna Skidmore and other members of Chester M. Lee’s staff were also very helpful when it came to providing copies of documents from Captain Lee’s reading files. After the splashdown, Lee’s reading files were retired to the Headquarters History Office. Archivist Lee D. Saegesser promptly sent us these folders so we could check them against our holdings. In addition, throughout our work on ASTP, Saegesser has inundated us weekly with news clippings (Soviet and American), translations of Soviet journal articles, and numerous other items related to the joint project. Saegesser’s presence in Washington and his complete enthusiasm for helping researchers saved us many hours of searching for specific documents and several trips to Headquarters.

When pulled together and arranged in chronological order, these letters, memoranda, trip reports, and minutes of telephone conversations formed the backbone of the ASTP history skeleton. The most formal of these items were the letters. The agency usually employs letters to communicate with the outside world and formally within NASA. We found letters to the

Soviets, to members of Congress, to Defense Department personnel, and to the scientific community. During ASTP, all project-related letters between the United States and the Soviet Union were channeled through the respective ASTP Technical Directors, Lunney and Bushuyev. Letters from NASA were sent over Lunney’s signature. From JSC, the letter went to Chet Lee’s office, which in turn sent it to Arnold Frutkin’s International Affairs office. It would then be delivered to the State Department for dispatch to the Soviet Union via diplomatic pouch. The American Embassy in Moscow delivered the letter to Bushuyev at the Soviet Academy of Sciences. All letters to the Soviets were sent in English. All letters from the U.S.S.R. were received in Russian. Each side translated the correspondence it received.

Telexes were generally used for high priority communications. These TWXs included messages to other NASA centers, to other government agencies, to contractors, and to the Soviets. Like telephone conversations, the telex gave Lunney and Bushuyev much quicker and more direct communication. It became a very valuable management tool in the course of preparing for the joint mission.

By far the most common form of communication we encountered was the memorandum, which NASA uses for most internal correspondence. We have chosen to cite these by the names of the author and addressee rather than by the mail codes generally used by NASA. Memos cover a variety of subjects. For example, trip reports from NASA engineers, negotiators, and astronauts were distributed in memo form so Lunney and others could get a better idea of what happened on the working trips to the Soviet Union.

Because we live in the era of the telephone, many actions and decisions were not recorded in formal documents. Therefore, we found it particularly helpful to interview the participants frequently, either by telephone or in person. Interviewing is both the strength and the weakness of contemporary history. With interviews, we obtained explanations of cryptic or confusing documents or gathered insights not recorded in the official records. The joint minutes of the Working Group meetings were distilled; interviews often gave us opportunities to discover what lay behind certain diplomatically phrased passages. Or when we encountered briefing charts that gave us only a clue to an important story, the interview supplied the details.

But interviews are also a potential hazard. Individuals can selectively remember some facts and as conveniently forget others, so we always made an effort to confirm any one version of an event with documentation and other interviews. A more common problem was the failure to remember at all. Engineers and technical managers at NASA shared a common tendency to forget about a project or event once it had passed. Always looking at today’s technical problems or concerns, they often do not remember earlier crises because they were resolved. Therefore, it was frequently necessary for us to have a document or photograph in hand with which to jog memories. A common response was, “I’d forgotten all about that until now.” Clearly, problems ceased to be problems-sometimes ceased to exist-once they were solved. However, one of the values of writing a history so close to the events is to preserve elements of the past that might otherwise not be recorded or might simply disappear from memory. Many readers of our comment edition reacted the same way-“Did all that really happen?”

The interviews we collected vary in length and detail. Some were lengthy conversations that were tape recorded and transcribed. Others were short 5- to 15-minute discussions about specific topics; for example, the reaction control system (RCS) impingement problem discussed in chapter IX. Still others were conducted over the telephone with only notes for a record. At all times, we received only the fullest cooperation. The following persons aided us through interviews:

• Anderson, Oscar E., Jr.
• Biggs, Charles A., Sr.
• Brand, Vance D.^*
• Brzezinski, M. S.
• Burke, Roger A.
• Cernan, Eugene A.^*
• Cheatham, Donald C.
• Covington, Clarke^*
• Creasy, William K.^*
• Culbertson, Philip E.
• Cundieff, Lonnie D.
• Dietz, R. H.^*
• Donnelly, John P.^*
• Epstein, Donalyn^*
• Frutkin, Arnold W.^*
• Gilruth, Robert R
• Guy, Walter W.^*
• Haken, Richard L.
• Handler, Philip^*
• Hardy, George B.
• Hawkins, W. Royce
• Holmes, Tamara
• Jaax, James R.
• James, Bennett W.
• Johnson, Caldwell C.^*
• Jones, James C.
• King, John W.
• Kraft, Christopher C.^*
• Latter, Natalie
• Lee, Chester M.
• Lee, Roscoe
• Low, George M.
• Lunney, Glynn S.^*
• Nicholson, Leonard S.^*
• Overmyer, Robert F.^*
• Paine, Thomas O.^†
• Pollock, S. T
• Riley, John E.^*
• Roberts, James Leroy
• Ross, Thomas O.
• Scott, David R.
• Shafer, Robert J.^*
• Slayton, Donald K.^*
• Smith, Herbert E.
• Smylie, Robert E.^*
• Stafford, Thomas P.
• Syromyatnikov, V. S.
• Tatistcheff, Alex
• Taub, Willard M.^*
• Taylor, Ada
• Timacheff, Nicholas^*
• Travis, A. Don
• Waite, J. C.
• Webb, James E.^†
• White, Robert D.

^*More than one interview.
^†By letter only.

Three other individuals that deserve our thanks are Mary Kerber, who helped us with the typing and retyping; Robert V. Gordon from the JSC Public Affairs Office, who always made sure that we knew about ASTP briefings for the press, news releases, and other pertinent activities; and Andrew R. Patnesky, JSC Photographer, who supplied us with so many excellent photographs of ASTP activities.

Another category of source material deserves special mention-the responses we received on the comment edition of this history. Early in December 1975, we distributed 135 copies of our draft. The comments this early version brought varied considerably in scope, format, and value, but a number were very useful in completing the final manuscript and in saving us from embarrassing mistakes. Those who commented were:

• Anderson, Oscar E.
• Brand, Vance D.
• Brieseth, Christopher
• Compton, W. David
• Covert, Elizabeth R.
• Covington, Clarke
• Creasy, William K
• Dietz, R. H.
• Donnelly, John P.
• Ete, Done M.
• Forostenko, Anatole
• Frutkin, Arnold W.
• Gates, Sally D.
• Giuli, R. Thomas
• Grimwood, James M.
• Guy, Walter W.
• Hall, R. Cargill
• Hecht, Kenneth F.
• Holley, I. B.
• Huss, Carl R.
• Jaax, James R.
• King, John W.
• Kraft, Christopher C.
• Kranzberg, Melvin
• Larson, Ray
• Lavroff, Ross
• Lee, Chester M.
• Lockyer, William
• Low, George M.
• Lunney, Glynn S.
• Maines, Howard G.
• Morton, Louis
• Nicholson, Leonard S.
• Riley, John E.
• Roberts, James Leroy
• Roland, Alex
• Shafer, Robert J.
• Slayton, Donald K.
• Smith, Herbert E.
• Smylie, Robert E.
• Stafford, Thomas P.
• Taub, Willard M.
• Taylor, Ada
• Timacheff, Nicholas
• Underwood, Richard W.
• White, Robert D.
• Wright, Monte D.
• Young, Kenneth A.
• Zavoico, Irene

In addition to the correspondence and project documentation, we used NASA news releases, transcripts of press conferences, mission-related briefings, and the air-to-ground transcripts to add life and human interest to the text. Equally useful at times were technical reports prepared by the contractors. Unlike earlier programs, ASTP did not generate a large number of press kits or handbooks for the mission, but we did find those generated during the lunar flights to be quite useful regarding the Apollo spacecraft and the Saturn launch vehicle. ASTP produced many public affairs firsts. Among these news materials, one unique pair of documents was developed for the joint mission-the bilingual editions of NASA, “Apollo Soyuz Test Project Kit” [July 1975], and Soviet Academy of Sciences, “Apollo-Soyuz Test Project Information for Press” [July 1975].

The reader is invited to peruse the chapter notes for other source materials not mentioned.

ATTACHMENT 1-COMPLETE LIST OF IDENTIFIED ASTP DOCUMENTS

Planning Documents

Safety Assessment Reports

Scheduling Documents

Mission Documents

Interacting Equipment Documents

ATTACHMENT 2-“DATA FILE OF SOVIET MEETING JULY 6-18, 1972”

1.0 Signed Documents and Meeting Minutes

The ASTP/Interacting Equipment Documents (IED) documents and summary minutes signed on 17 July 1972 were placed in the vaults the week of 7 August 1972.

The masters are available for reproduction on an as required basis. These documents include:

2.0 Data Provided by USA

2.1 Preliminary Documents

2.2 Other Data Provided by USA

3.0 Data Provided by USSR

3.1 Preliminary Documents

3.2 Other Data

4.0 Agendas

• 4.1 Telegram
• 4.2 Proposed Agenda
• 4.3 Overall Agenda
• 4.4 Detail Plan
• 4.5 Social Agenda

5.0 Photographs

• S-72-43527
• S-72-43528
• S-72-43529
• S-72-43530
• S-72-43531
• S-72-43532
• S-72-43533
• S-72-43534
• S-72-43535
• S-72-43536
• S-72-43537
• S-72-43538
• S-72-43539
• S-72-43540
• S-72-43541
• S-72-43542
• S-72-43543
• S-72-43544
• S-72-43545
• S-72-43757
• S-72-43758
• S-72-44143
• S-72-44144
• S-72-44165
• S-72-44166
• S-72-44298
• S-72-44299
• S-72-44300
• S-72-44301
• S-72-44302
• S-72-44303
• S-72-44304
• S-72-44305
• S-72-44306
• S-72-44307
• S-72-44308
• S-72-44309
• S-72-43310
• S-72-44311
• S-72-44312
• S-72-44313
• S-72-44314
• S-72-44315
• S-72-44316
• S-72-44317
• S-72-44318
• S-72-44319
• S-72-44320
• S-72-44321
• S-72-44322
• S-72-44323
• S-72-44324
• S-72-44326
• S-72-44327
• S-72-44328
• S-72-44329
• S-72-44330
• S-72-44331
• S-72-44332
• S-72-44333
• S-72-44334
• S-72-44335
• S-72-44336
• S-72-44337
• S-72-44338
• S-72-44339
• S-72-44340
• S-72-44341
• S-72-44342
• S-72-44343
• S-72-44344
• S-72-44345
• S-72-44346
• S-72-44347
• S-72-44348
• S-72-44349
• S-72-44350
• S-72-44351
• S-72-44352
• S-72-44353
• S-72-44354
• S-72-44355
• S-72-44356
• S-72-44380
• S-72-44381
• S-72-44382
• S-72-44383
• S-72-44398
• S-72-44399
• S-72-44832
• S-72-44833
• S-72-44834
• S-72-44835
• S-72-44836
• S-72-44837
• S-72-44846
• S-72-44847
• S-72-44848
• S-72-44849
• S-72-44850
• S-72-44851
• S-72-44852
• S-72-44871
• S-72-44872
• S-72-44873
• S-72-44874
• S-72-44875
• S-72-44876
• S-72-44877
• S-72-44878
• S-72-44879
• S-72-44880
• S-72-44881
• S-72-44882

6.0 Debriefing Memos

• 6.1 Working Group 1
• 6.2 Working Group 2
• 6.3 Working Group 3-none made
• 6.4 Working Group 4
• 6.5 Working Group 5

7.0 Results Presentation

7.1 Communique on Results of Apollo-Soyuz Test Project Meetings