Carving out space for peace – in space

Fifty years ago, two spacecraft met in space as part of a unique mission: After nearly two decades of intense space rivalry, the Soviet Union and the USA joined forces. We have much to learn from that landmark event today.

Space – and not least the moon, our natural satellite – became the site of one of the fiercest political and scientific battles of the Cold War. It started in 1957, when the Soviet Union terrified America and the west by the successful launch of Sputnik into Earth orbit.

In the years that followed, the Soviets achieved one success after the other, partly due to an almost extreme willingness to take risks, and partly thanks to the brilliant Ukrainian rocket engineer Sergei Korolev and a corps of brilliant cosmonauts – the Russian name for what in the west became known as astronauts. The Soviets sent up the dog Laika as the first earthly being in space, Yuri Gagarin as the first human in space, and Alexei Leonov as the first human to conduct a spacewalk.

For long, the Americans were lagging seriously behind. But then, Korolev died in 1966 – caused in part by the effects of torture he had been subjected to under the Stalin regime – and the Soviets, highly competent as they were, increasingly had to pay for a combination of hubris, an inefficient system, and the loss of their strong scientific leader.

Throughout this race, the two superpowers were technologically isolated from each other. Nevertheless, they found strikingly similar and often incredibly inventive solutions to the vast technological challenges.

No place for human beings

The challenges were indeed of enormous proportions: Outer space, outside the atmosphere of the Earth, with no air, deadly radiation, and minimal gravity, is no place for humans. When the Soviets initiated their space missions and the Americans soon followed, little was known about what they would encounter.

When John F. Kennedy articulated his ambition in 1961 to place a human on the surface of the moon by the end of the 1960s (and, importantly, to get that same person safely back!), NASA had no more than 15 minutes of experience with manned spaceflight. Whether it was even possible to survive a trip to the moon, land there, and then return to Earth was entirely unknown.

The fact that they eventually succeeded in sending humans to the moon and back is something of a human miracle, driven by brilliant engineering, hundreds of thousands of skilled helpers, and some very brave astronauts.

But above all, it was driven by politics. Hostility and suspicion ran deep between two rival political systems, and both wanted to show that they could achieve what the other could not.

Another way of thinking

Kennedy himself laid the groundwork for a very different and less competitive way of thinking about outer space. In a speech to the UN General Assembly in September 1963, shortly before his death, he urged the Soviet Union to join the USA – along with the world’s United Nations – in a common exploration of outer space and the moon.

This grand vision largely disappeared with Kennedy, and a complex global situation, not least marked by the Vietnam War, made real and extensive space cooperation increasingly less relevant.

Nevertheless, the USA and the Soviet Union managed to come together on the UN Outer Space Treaty of 1967, a confirmation of the idea of cooperation and peace in outer space, even at a time when actual collaboration seemed to be far away.

Apollo and Soyuz

And then it happened: After the USA successfully had sent humans to the moon in 1969, and the Soviet Union started to claim it had other goals for its space research anyway, forces on both sides of the Iron Curtain managed to agree on a joint space mission.

Starting in 1971, the two countries gradually opened their space centers to each other, and technology sharing went hand in hand with the development of strong personal friendships.

Plans were soon formed for a unique physical meeting in outer space between two systems, two languages, and two technologies. On Thursday, July 17, 1975, an Apollo and a Soyuz capsule docked in orbit around the Earth. Two officers from each side of an intense Cold War shook hands in what has become known as "the handshake of peace": Alexei Leonov and Tom Stafford and their two crews conducted a series of scientific experiments together, but most importantly: they showed what can be gained both materially, politically, and morally from joining forces.

A few weeks later – unrelated to the mission, but part of the same strong desire and movement for détente – the Helsinki Declaration on Security and Cooperation in Europe was signed.

Today – and back then

Much is different today. The 1975 events were characterized by a post-war generation on both sides of the Iron Curtain. They understood the dangers of world war and had been severely frightened by the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, which almost developed into nuclear war.

Today, it seems that such a shared understanding of the dangers of war is less pronounced, and the ideological divides are less clear and much less predictable.

However, the idea behind the Apollo-Soyuz project is at least as valid today – and it should inspire us. Despite conflict and suspicion, it is possible to create space for peaceful cooperation, and it is even possible to lay the groundwork for such cooperation while conflict persists. Women and men in science can learn from each other and find common solutions. We have spoken with many NASA astronauts who emphasize the same, based on years of experience: We must collaborate!

Imagine if today’s most powerful nations could share openly their best knowledge on issues like climate change and biodiversity loss with each other and use each other's expertise for a joint effort, just as they did with space research 50 years ago and to some extent still do today.

Apollo-Soyuz was not only a scientific success that laid the groundwork for what many years later became collaboration on the Mir and ISS space stations. The mission not least demonstrated that we can create space for peace and respect alongside conflict, without compromising our deepest principles. The road to getting there is long today, partly due to the deep-seated suspicions that exist between China and the west. But we must not imagine that building scientific and diplomatic peace in space is impossible.

Solar eclipse and cooperation

On Saturday, July 19, 1975, the two spacecraft separated, and shortly thereafter, the round Apollo capsule positioned itself between the sun and the Soyuz vehicle, creating an artificial solar eclipse. The Soviets were able to conduct unique solar research for all of humanity, thanks to high-tech cooperation between friends – and enemies.

Fifty years later, we need the spirit of Apollo-Soyuz more than ever.

• Henrik Syse is a Research Professor at PRIO and co-author of Fordi det er vanskelig. Om menneskets utrolige reise til månen [Because it is difficult. On the incredible human voyage to the Moon], published by Cappelen Damm
• Jenny Helene Syse is a student and co-author of Fordi det er vanskelig. Om menneskets utrolige reise til månen [Because it is difficult. On the incredible human voyage to the Moon]
• An earlier version of this text was published in Norwegian by Vårt land 17 July 2025