The height of the Cold War passed in the 1960s. Sure, the U.S. and Russia were still diametrically opposed, with the U.S. still expanding blood and treasure keeping the Russia-backed North Vietnamese from overrunning the country. And Ronald Reagan, who as president famously called Russia an “Evil Empire” was still a governor in California. But at least nobody was counting down to nuclear war, as they were during the Cuban Missile Crisis. In the field of science, too, there was a thaw and the start of cooperation.

On this day, July 17, in 1975 an Apollo spacecraft module made the first successful dock with a Soyuz shit. The test run for joint spaceflight and international collaboration (at least in the field of science) exceeded expectation.

In 2010, on the occasion of the 35th anniversary of the flight, astronauts Thomas Stafford and Vance Brand from the Apollo flight met up with Russian counterparts, Alexei Leonov and Valery Kubasov at the Omega Watches Boutique in New York City (Omega produced some of the watches used by the astronauts for the flight.) All except Leonov, who was ill, participated in a round-table discussion about their famous trip.