Before joint missions, such as Apollo and Soyuz, could take place, both nations had to find a compelling rationale for cooperation, ultimately overcoming the seemingly insurmountable barriers to foster genuine cooperative space projects.

In 1969, NASA Administrator Thomas O. Paine saw an opportunity for a paradigm shift in Soviet-American space relations. Given the United States’ clear lead in the race to the moon, he believed an offer of cooperation would not jeopardize the US luna...

Lunney and his colleagues were especially captivated by the descriptions of the Soyuz control systems provided by Shatalov and Beregovoy. While immersed in the U.S. space programs, the NASA representatives could only follow the U.S.-U.S.S.R. competit...