As the American diplomat noted, throughout “all these years, our countries have continued the traditions of the cosmic handshake that occurred in July 1975,” when the Apollo Union docked.
“When I think about everything that happened during this time in relations between the Russian Federation and the USA, space is probably the only example of ongoing positive cooperation,” RIA Novosti quoted Sullivan as saying.
As the Deputy Director of the North American Department of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs Vasily Boryak noted, the famous handshake of Alexei Leonov and Thomas Stafford during the docking of spacecraft paved the way for full-fledged international cooperation in space exploration.
Earlier, the CEO of Roscosmos Dmitry Rogozin told how he relates to the idea of flights of Russian astronauts on SpaceX spacecraft.