Space ace helped thaw Cold War
Thomas Stafford
Astronaut
BORN SEPTEMBER 17, 1930 – DIED MARCH 18, 2024, AGED 93
APOLLO space commander Thomas Stafford’s historic celestial handshake with his Russian counterpart,Alexei Leonov, on July 17, 1975, forged a new era of relaxed tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union during the Cold War.
Millions of people watched the two men float towards one another and shake hands in the docking area between their Apollo and Soyuz spacecrafts, 140 miles above Earth over the French city of Metz.
“Very good to see you!” said Leonov before Stafford, replying in Russian, said: “Very happy, my friend!” His Oklahoma accent was so broad that Leonov later remarked that Russian, English and “Oklahomski” were spoken during the mission.
General Stafford flew four times in space and in May 1969, as commander of the Apollo 10, he came within nine miles of the Moon’s surface in preparation for Neil Armstrong’s lunar landing with Apollo 11 two months later.
Thomas Patten Stafford was born in Weatherfield, Oklahoma to Thomas, a dentist, and Mary (née Patten), a teacher.
He graduated from the United States Naval Academy with honours in 1952 and was commissioned into the US Air Force where he flew F-86 fighters and wrote testing manuals for pilots.
After being accepted by Nasa, his first two space missions were with Gemini 6A and Gemini 9, which he stepped up to after its original crew were killed in a training exercise.
Stafford left Nasa in 1975 to command the US Air Force’s Flight Test Centre at Edwards, California.
He was promoted to lieutenant general three years later and became the US Air Force’s deputy chief of staff for research and development.
He received numerous accolades for his achievements.
Married twice, he is survived by his second wife Linda Ann Stafford and their sons, plus two daughters from a first marriage. Stafford died at a retirement home after recently being diagnosed with liver cancer.