Commander of first joint U.S.-Soviet space mission Thomas Stafford dies

Retired astronaut Thomas P. Stafford died on Monday in Florida of complications from liver cancer. He was 93. Stafford was the American commander of the first joint U.S.-Soviet Space mission in 1975 when he commanded an Apollo capsule that docked with a Soviet Soyuz capsule while in orbit. The two teams conducted joint experiments for two days and toured the world together after landing.

What was his career at NASA? While at NASA, Stafford flew into space four times. He was the 1969 Apollo 10 mission commander who orbited the moon. After the joint mission with the Soviet Union, Stafford returned to the Air Force, where he commanded the Air Force Flight Test Center and retired as a lieutenant general in 1979.

Dig deeper: Listen to Paul Butler talk about the first NASA mission to orbit the moon on The World and Everything in It podcast.