Thirty-five years ago today — December 2, 1974 — cosmonauts Anatoliy V. Filipchenko and Nikolai N. Rukavishnikov launched from Baikonur aboard Soyuz-16. Their flight was a pathfinder for the upcoming Apollo-Soyuz mission in 1975, and was the only manned test flight leading up to the joint US-USSR mission.
Fascinating details about the Soyuz-16 mission, including some of the geopolitical considerations, can be found on this page.
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