Look and Learn Magazine - Apollo–Soyuz Test Project

Look and Learn Magazine - Apollo–Soyuz Test Project

Look and Learn magazine, issue 537, 29 April 1972. The front cover illustration depicts an American astronaut and a Soviet cosmonaut sharing a meal in space, alongside the strapline ‘A Date For Dinner – In Space’. The cover story focuses on the announcement of the planned Apollo-Soyuz Test Project, which would see the first international link up in space, carried out by the Soviets and Americans.

Three years after this magazine story, in July 1975, the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project successfully saw the docking of a Soviet Soyuz 7K-TM spacecraft and an American Apollo CSM-111 spacecraft. Alexei Leonov and Tom Stafford, the two respective mission commanders, exchanged an historic handshake in space. If it had not been for a delay during the mission, the handshake would have taken place directly above Bognor Regis (it actually took place above the French town of Metz).

‘Look and Learn’ was a British educational magazine aimed at children, which was produced once a week. First published in 1962 by Fleetway Publications Ltd, it ran until 17 April 1982, when it was cancelled by IPC Magazines who had taken over Fleetway. In November 2004, the rights to the magazine were purchased by Look and Learn Magazine Ltd, who created a website that includes back issues of the original magazine.