Thomas Patten Stafford was a test pilot and flight commander of the “Apollo–Soyuz” mission, which is considered his main achievement during the Cold War. In his memoirs, co-written with Michael Cassutt, he describes his early successes as a test pilot and his participation in the historic “handshake in space,” which symbolized successful cooperation between two rival countries. Stafford’s team became the first group of Americans to work at the astronaut training center and the first to visit Baikonur.