“Howdy partner!”- Space brotherhood, Detente and the symbolism of the 1975 Apollo-Soyuz test project

Ellis, Thomas (2019) “Howdy partner!”- Space brotherhood, Detente and the symbolism of the 1975 Apollo-Soyuz test project. Journal of American Studies, 53 (3), 744-769. (doi:10.1017/S0021875817001955).

Record type: Article

Abstract

In 1975 American and Soviet spacecraft docked together in orbit as part of the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project (ASTP), the world’s first international crewed space mission. Focusing on the project’s political symbolism, this article argues that the ASTP was an attempt by the Nixon and Ford administrations to advertise US-Soviet detente by harnessing the optimistic imagery of “space brotherhood”, an instinctive kinship supposedly shared by American astronauts and Soviet cosmonauts. This was ultimately unsuccessful, as detente’s critics appropriated the mission for their own symbolic use to attack US-Soviet detente as a fantastical escape from earthly problems.

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Accepted/In Press date: 21 November 2017

e-pub ahead of print date: 16 March 2018

Published date: August 2019

Additional Information: Thomas Ellis is a History PhD candidate at the University of Southampton. His doctoral research was funded by the UK Arts and Humanities Research Council’s (AHRC) South West and Wales Doctoral Training Programme. The archival research this article is derived from was made possible by a generous travel grant funding from the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Foundation and a research fellowship at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Air and Space Museum organised through the AHRC’s International Placement Scheme. In addition to the journal’s anonymous reviewers, the author wishes to thank Professor Kendrick Oliver for his helpful feedback and mentorship.

Keywords: American Studies, Cold War, History, diplomacy

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