ASTP (Mission Patch) Button

This is the American crew insignia of the joint United States-USSR Apollo-Soyuz Test Project (ASTP). Of circular design, the insignia has a colorful border area, outlined in red, with the names of the five crew members and the words Apollo in English and Soyuz in Russian around an artist's concept of the Apollo and Soyuz spacecraft about to dock in Earth orbit. The bright sun and the blue and white Earth are in the background. The white stars on the blue background represent American astronauts Thomas P. Stafford, commander; Vance D. Brand, command module pilot; and Donald (Deke) K. Slayton, docking module pilot. The dark gold stars on the red background represent Soviet cosmonauts Aleksey A. Leonov, commander, and Valeriy N. Kubasov.