From 11/2/1965 to 7/19/1975 is 3546 days
http://articles.latimes.com/1995-07-05/news/mn-20449_1_space-station
Los Angeles Times
U.S., Russian Spacecraft Go Separate Ways : Docking: Shuttle Atlantis ends historic 5-day linkup with space station. It leaves with three crewmen who have been in orbit since mid-March.
July 05, 1995 from Associated Press
HOUSTON — Astronauts and cosmonauts watched their ships part and fade into the blackness of space Tuesday in an orbital pirouette that ended five days of flying as a single craft.
"We're just shaking our heads at how quickly this has all gone by," said Charles Precourt, pilot of the U.S. space shuttle Atlantis. "It's as if it were a dream, that we didn't really live it, it happened so fast. . . . But what a great time, what a great effort."
For half an hour, three craft hovered a few hundred feet from one another while hurtling around Earth at 5 miles a second: The Russian Soyuz capsule with two cosmonauts, Atlantis with eight passengers, and the temporarily unmanned Russian space station Mir.
Both crews recorded the historic moment on video and film, but the sun's glare spoiled many of the pictures.
"It's been an inspiring visit with our neighbors in space. We look forward to returning," said NASA's Mission Control.
"We agree with that. . . . We agree 100%," Atlantis' commander, Robert L. (Hoot) Gibson, replied as he backed the shuttle away from the station. "In one of the simulations, the words 'cosmic ballet' came to mind, and I guess that's where we are now."
For nearly 1 1/2 hours, Atlantis flew around Mir for picture-taking, then fired its thrusters 245 miles above South America to move into its own track.
"Bye-bye," Solovyev said softly.
Atlantis launched with seven occupants and is scheduled to land Friday at Florida's Kennedy Space Center
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo%E2%80%93Soyuz_Test_Project
Apollo–Soyuz Test Project
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Apollo–Soyuz Test Project (ASTP), conducted in July 1975, was the first joint U.S.–Soviet space flight, and the last flight of an Apollo spacecraft.
Docking
First docking: July 17, 1975 - 16:19:09 UTC
Last undocking: July 19, 1975 - 15:26:12 UTC
Launch and mission
The Soyuz and Apollo flights launched within seven-and-a-half hours of each other on July 15, and docked on July 17. Three hours later, the two mission commanders, Stafford and Leonov, exchanged the first international handshake in space through the open hatch of the Soyuz. NASA had calculated that the historic handshake would have taken place over the British seaside resort of Bognor Regis, but a delay resulted in its occurrence being over the town of Metz in France. During the first crew exchange, the crews were read a statement from Soviet Premier Leonid Brezhnev, and received a phone call from U.S. President Gerald Ford.
While the two ships were docked, the three Americans and two Soviets conducted joint scientific experiments, exchanged flags and gifts (including tree seeds which were later planted in the two countries), signed certificates, visited each other's ships, ate together, and conversed in each other's languages. (Because of Stafford's pronounced drawl when speaking Russian, Leonov later joked that there were three languages spoken on the mission: Russian, English, and "Oklahomski.") There were also docking and redocking maneuvers, during which the two spacecraft reversed roles and the Soyuz became the "active" ship.
After 44 hours together, the two ships separated
http://www.stargate-sg1-solutions.com/wiki/Stargate:_The_Movie_Transcript
STARGATE WIKI
Stargate: The Movie
INT—CAVE
[Shau'ri and Daniel sit on the floor, talking with each other in the native tongue.]
O'NEIL
Thought you couldn't speak their language.
[Daniel jumps, startled, and stands, chuckling nervously.]
DANIEL
Huh? You scared me.
[O'Neil, Skaara, Kawalski, and Brown walk further into the cave. O'Neil looks angry. Daniel and Shau'ri move to meet them. Daniel gestures at the wall.]
DANIEL
It's an ancient Egyptian dialect. I mean, it's like the rest of their culture. It's evolved completely independently. But...uh...once you know the vowels....
O'NEIL
Just answer the question.
DANIEL
Well—uh. I-I me—I just had to learn how to pronounce it.
http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/SP-4209/ch11-4.htm
SP-4209 The Partnership: A History of the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project
18 July - Transfers
Before finishing all the items on their pre-sleep checklist, the Americans paused to listen to the news and sports as read by CapCom Truly. Included in his report was mention of an American home exhibit that had just opened to enthusiastic crowds in Moscow. Called "Technology in the American Home," the display was designed to give Soviet citizens an idea of the gadgetry available to the American homemaker. While no one commented on the fact, it was just such an exhibit that had sparked the Nixon-Khrushchev debate in 1959. In 16 years' time, the international scene seemed to have changed dramatically.
Although the crew signed off for the evening on schedule at 7:20, they spent an uneasy first few hours. In addition to being very tired from the activities of their fourth day in space, they were jangled awake an hour later by a master alarm that reported a reduction in docking module oxygen pressure. This problem was no real hazard, and it was quickly solved by an increased flow of oxygen into the DM, but it kept the crew from getting all the sleep for which they had been scheduled. When wake-up time came at 3:13 on the morning of the 19th, the crew failed to hear the musical strains of "Tenderness" as sung by the Soviet female artist Maya Kristalinskaya, with which the ground team had hoped to gently waken them. But 15 minutes later, they were awake and ready to begin their fifth day. Next door, beyond hatches three and four, Leonov and Kubasov were getting prepared, too.
http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/SP-4209/ch11-5.htm
SP-4209 The Partnership: A History of the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project
19 July - Exercises
During day five of the flight, the crews concentrated on docking exercises and experiments that involved the two ships in the undocked [340] mode. During the interval between the first undocking and the second docking, the Apollo crew placed its craft between Soyuz and the sun so that the diameter of the service module formed a disk which blocked out the sun. This artificial solar eclipse, as viewed from Soyuz, permitted Leonov and Kubasov to photograph the solar corona. Ground-based observations were conducted simultaneously, so that the Soviet astronomer G. M. Nikolsky could compare views of the solar phenomena with and without the interference of the earth's atmosphere. Skylab had provided a long term look at the corona, and the ASTP data would give scientists an opportunity to compare findings made a year and a half later. This "artificial solar eclipse" (MA-148) experiment would be the last American chance for such information gathering until the Shuttle era.
Another major experiment, "ultraviolet absorption" (MA-059), was an effort to more precisely determine the quantities of atomic oxygen and atomic nitrogen existing at such altitudes as the one in which Apollo and Soyuz were orbiting. Again this information could not readily be obtained from ground-based observations because of the intervening layers of atmosphere. Apollo, flying out of plane around Soyuz, first at 150 meters, then at 500 meters, and finally in plane at 1,000 meters, projected monochromatic laserlike beams of light to retroreflectors mounted on Soyuz. When the beams were reflected back to Apollo, they were received by a spectrometer, which recorded the wavelength of the light. Subsequent analysis of these data would yield information on the quantities of oxygen and nitrogen. Some very precise flying was called for in these experiments.
After being docked for nearly 44 hours, Apollo and Soyuz had parted for the first time at 7:12 a.m. while out of contact with the ground. Slayton advised Bobko after radio contact was re-established that they had undocked without incident and were stationkeeping at a range of 50 meters. Meanwhile, Soyuz had extended the guide ring on its docking system in order to test the Soviet mechanism in the active configuration. Once they completed the solar eclipse experiment, with Slayton at the controls, Apollo moved towards Soyuz for the second docking. As he did, Stafford called out to the ground, "Okay, Houston, Deke's having the same problem with the COAS washout that I had." As Slayton explained it, he could see Soyuz and the target initially when they were against the dark sky, but at "about 100 meters or so, it went against the earth background and zap. Man, I didn't have anything." Although worried that he might run over Soyuz, he pressed on with the docking "by the seat of the pants and I guess I got a little closer than they or the ground anticipated."38 There was too much light flowing into the optical alignment sight for Slayton to get a good view of the docking target. Contact with Soyuz came at 7:33:39, and Leonov advised [341] the Americans that he was beginning to retract his side of the docking assembly.
As viewed via Apollo television, this docking looked as if it had been harder than the first, and the two ships continued to sway after capture had been completed. Slayton, speaking in a debriefing, later said:
The docking was normal, you guys gave me contact as usual and then I gave it thrusting. The only thing that happened then was they seemed to torque off. I was surprised at the angle they banged off there after we had contact.39
Despite this oscillation, the Soyuz system aligned the two craft and a proper retraction was completed. Subsequently, there was some discussion of this docking, and the Soviet docking specialist Syromyatnikov was at first worried that an unnecessary strain might have been placed on the Soyuz gear. Bob White said that analysis of the telemetry data indicated that Slayton had inadvertently fired the roll thrusters for approximately 3 seconds after contact, and that this sideways force caused the craft to oscillate after the docking systems were locked and rigid.
But even with the extra thrusting, the second docking was within the limits of safety established for the docking system. Slayton's docking took place at a forward velocity of 0.18 meter per second versus 0.25 meter per second for Stafford's docking, but the difference lay in the inadvertent thrusting. Momentarily an issue, the extra motion of Slayton's try was not a serious concern after all the data had been evaluated. Even Syromyatnikov had to concede that "the mechanism functioned well under unfavorable conditions." It was a case of things looking worse than they really were. In the end, the incident only demonstrated the reliability and hardiness of the new docking system.40
It was 10:27 when Apollo and Soyuz undocked for the second and final time. This 4-minute exercise was conducted by Leonov, since it was a Soyuz active undocking. Slayton then moved his ship to a stationkeeping distance, about 40 meters away. As he did, Leonov opened the retroreflector covers so that the ultraviolet absorption (UVA) experiment could be performed. A difficult series of maneuvers were called for in this test. As Soyuz continued its circular orbit, Slayton took Apollo out of plane with Soyuz and oriented his craft so that its nose was pointed at the reflector on the side of the other ship. Orbiting sideways in this configuration, Slayton flew Apollo in a small arc from the front of Soyuz to the rear of that ship while the spectrometer gathered the reflected beams. On the 150-meter phase of the experiment, light from a Soyuz port led to a misalignment of the spectrometer, but on the 500-meter pass excellent data were received; on the 1,000-meter pass satisfactory results were also obtained.
After nearly 3 hours of tough flying, Bobko congratulated the crew. "You people flew it fine." Slayton responded:
Okay. Great, Bo. And you can thank ol' Roger Burke, Steve Grega, and Bob Anderson, down there, that everything came off right. 'Cause they sure did all the work to make it go.41
The three men Slayton mentioned had spent hours in the simulators working out the procedures to fly this complicated maneuver. Burke, who had worked with developing flight procedures for years, felt that this was one of the hardest experiments a crew had ever been called on to do, especially since the flight plan for it had continued to evolve until a couple of days before launch.42 Slayton later noted that it had taken all three Apollo crewmen to complete the ultraviolet absorption experiment. "I was doing the flying, Vance was running the computer and we had Tom down in the equipment bay opening and closing doors, turning on sensors and so forth. So, it was a busy time for all of us." He indicated that the maneuvers were difficult because orbital mechanics came into play as they tried to fly around Soyuz. When the Apollo crew changed the velocity of their craft, they also affected its orbit. They would have no difficulties if they had had unlimited fuel resources, but being out of plane and playing orbital mechanics with "a very limited fuel budget . . . made it a great challenge."43 Stafford added [343] that the thruster firings had to be timed because the onboard accelerometers could not measure the changes in velocity.44
Apollo performed a separation maneuver at 1:42 to prevent re-contact with Soyuz, placing the American craft in a 217- by 219-kilometer orbit. With all the joint flight activities completed, the ships were going their separate ways. Soyuz was below and moving ahead of Apollo at a rate of 6 to 8 kilometers per orbit. Leonov and Kubasov prepared to go to sleep, but the American crew had several hours of work scheduled in their crowded flight plan after their mid-afternoon meal before they could settle down for a rest period. The fifth day of ASTP - the second of joint activities - had been a success, and everyone in the Moscow and Houston control centers was pleased that all had gone so well.
- posted by H.V.O.M - Kerry Wayne Burgess 3:47 PM Pacific Time somewhere near Seattle Washington USA Tuesday 27 May 2014
