NASA astronaut Tom Stafford, famed for U.S.-Soviet orbital handshake, has died at 93

NPR ^ | March 18, 2024 | Russell Lewis

[Ben Dover]

Tom Stafford, one of NASA's early astronauts, who flew in space four times including a trip to orbit the moon and then a historic rendezvous with Soviet cosmonauts, has died. He was 93 and passed away on Monday after battling a long illness. NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, "Today General Tom Stafford went to the eternal heavens which he so courageously explored as a Gemini and Apollo astronaut as well as a peacemaker in Apollo Soyuz. Those of us privileged to know him are very sad but grateful we knew a giant."

Stafford was born in Weatherford, Okla., in 1930 and later recalled, "As a little boy I wanted to fly airplanes and then later, be a fighter pilot. I wanted to go higher and faster. And [space] was just the next logical step."

[x]

“Famed”?

What handshake?

[ProtectOurFreedom]

First time US astronauts and Soviet cosmonauts met in space.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

The handshake when they opened the hatch…

[one guy in new jersey]

Awesome.

[Verginius Rufus]

The Russian he shook hands with, Alexei Leonov, died in 2019.

[Carriage Hill]

I remember the pics on the ‘CBS Evening News’.
RIP, Tom.

[xp38]

Early Russian collusion!

[ProtectOurFreedom]

“Early Russian collusion!”

Heh, heh!!

[Verginius Rufus]

I read that he spent two years learning Russian in preparation for the meeting. NASA wanted them to have a common language and common measurements. Which must mean he had to learn metric.

Russian is a hard language to learn. But to learn metric too? The guy was dedicated!

[Da Coyote]

Gen Stafford was my boss when I was an IP at Edwards AFB. Very good man. No pretense or superiority games.

[No name given]

Rest In Peace, Tom.

[Ezekiel]

Russian is a hard language to learn. But to learn metric too? The guy was dedicated!

He may have mastered the meter, but could he make it rhyme?

93

RIP

[frogjerk]

This was the second time they opened the hatch. The first time the optics were bad for the Russians as the Americans reached out first into the Russian spacecraft making the Russians look timid. It had to be reshot for political reasons.

I learned this from an engineer (rocket scientist) at Johnson Space Center in Houston during a tour. These men were pivotal during the Space Race, knew all of the astronauts personally and they had the most incredible stories about all of the goings on during that time.

[Campion]

Leonov teased Stafford that his Russian had such a thick accent it was really “Oklahomski”.

[GreenLanternCorps]

[JSM_Liberty]

Apollo / Soyuz, I am just young enough that I don’t remember watching the Apollo landings so Apollo / Soyuz is the earliest big space event I remember.

[Honorary Serb]

Memory Eternal!

[Honorary Serb]

Memory Eternal!

[Political Junkie Too]

I once got to attend a lunch with Gen. Stafford at the Johnson Space Center in 2019. There were about 50 people in attendance.

-PJ