Tom Stafford’s sterling silver Apollo-Soyuz Test Project (ASTP) Robbins medal, approximately 1.25″ in diameter, with a raised mission insignia design on the face, and the reverse featuring raised text, "First Joint U.S.—U.S.S.R. Space Flight," and engraved with the launch and entry dates, July 15, 1975, and July 24, 1975. Serial numbered “155” on the edge. Condition is mint state, with slight tarnishing. Includes its original matching plastic case.
Accompanied by a signed letter of authenticity from Stafford, who states that “the accompanying Apollo/Soyuz Test Project Robbins Medallion #155 [was] carried by me aboard our spacecraft during the first flight of international cooperation…This Robbins medallion has an engraving of our mission patch that was designed especially for our flight. As the first international flight involving two countries, our flight included rendezvous, docking and undocking with a Soviet Union Soyuz spacecraft carrying two Soviet cosmonauts. Alexei and I exchanged a truly historic handshake in Space. During the ASTP program, NASA's policy allowed astronauts to keep disposable equipment or personal memorabilia from their mission as personal mementos, and I accordingly chose to include this ASTP Robbins medallion among mine. The ASTP Robbins Medallion flown on the mission has remained a treasured part of my personal space collection for over thirty years, ever since NASA presented it back to me in 1975, shortly after my return to Earth.”
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