Kazakhstan 500 Tenge Silver Coin 2009 The Apollo-Soyuz Mission
Series Space Coins — The Apollo-Soyuz Mission
Obverse: the composition, which symbolizes the unity of a man and the universe, bonds of past and present; the fact value of the coin «50 ТЕҢГЕ»; two legends "ҚАЗАҚСТАН YЛТТЫҚ БАНКI" and «REPUBLIC OF KAZAKHSTAN».
Reverse: the image of the Soviet spaceship “Soyuz – 19” and American spaceship “Apollo”, they realized the joining on the near-earth orbit of joint experimental flight program; the name of the coin is indicated in Kazakh “СОЮЗ-АПОЛЛОН” and in English “SOYUZ-APOLLO”; “2009” means the year of coinage.
Bicolour (compound) coin circle-shaped is consisted of a ring and a disk. Inner disk is made of tantalum, external ring is made of silver.
Face value: 500 tenge.
Date of issue 18 April 2009.
Lateral surface is grooved.
Weight 41,4 gr. Fineness: 925 Ag, 14,6 gr. and Ta, 38,61 gr
Quality: proof.
Mintage: 4000.
Series Space Coins
Kazakhstan 500 Tenge Silver Coin 2009 The Apollo-Soyuz Mission
Apollo–Soyuz Test Project
The Apollo–Soyuz Test Project (ASTP) (Russian: Экспериментальный полёт «Союз» — «Аполлон», Eksperimantalniy polyot Soyuz-Apollon, lit. "Experimental flight Soyuz-Apollo"), conducted in July 1975, was the first joint U.S.–Soviet space flight, and the last flight of an Apollo spacecraft.
Its primary purpose was as a symbol of the policy of détente that the two superpowers were pursuing at the time, and marked the end of the Space Race between them that began in 1957.
The mission included both joint and separate scientific experiments (including an engineered eclipse of the Sun by Apollo to allow Soyuz to take photographs of the solar corona), and provided useful engineering experience for future joint US–Russian space flights, such as the Shuttle–Mir Program and the International Space Station.
ASTP was the last manned US space mission until the first Space Shuttle flight in April 1981. It was also U.S. astronaut Donald "Deke" Slayton's only space flight. He was chosen as one of the original Mercury Seven astronauts in April 1959, but had been grounded until 1972 for medical reasons.