50 years ago… official ASTP NASA crew photos In January 1974 NASA released official crew photos of the astronauts for the upcoming Apollo Soyuz Test Project (ASTP) mission. These three NASA astronauts are the American flight crew for the 1975 ASTP mission. The prime crewmen for the joint U.S.-Soviet Union space flight are, left to right, Donald K. Slayton, docking module pilot; Vance D. Brand, command module pilot; and Thomas P. Stafford, commander. The crew was announced on January 30, 1973. The backup crew were Alan Bean, Ronald Evans and Jack Lousma. Posing in their white space suits with a scale model of the Apollo-Soyuz capsules in docking mode in front of them. Note both Deke Slayton and Tom Stafford wore their Gold “Apollo 11 tribute” Omega Speedmaster chronographs, respectively numbers 27 & 13, awarded in November 1969. (Photo: NASA S74-15241)