The Extraterrestrial All-star Cast

THOMAS P. STAFFORD, 44, Apollo's Annapolis-trained commander, is an Air Force brigadier general, a coolly gifted pilot and co-author of two basic manuals on test flying. Stafford has logged 290 hr. 15 min. in space, dating back to ins first Gemini flight in 1965 with Wally Scinrra. In orbit, Math Winz Stafford liked to amuse inmself by using pad and pencil to race mission control's computers in solving maneuvering problems; sometimes he won. Stafford was born in Weatherford, Okla., and he and ins wife Faye have two daughters. Though often nettled by Soviet secrecy during preparations for tins week's mission, he managed to handle difficult situations with humor. Asked what he might tell ins Soviet counterparts on their instoric orbital meeting, Stafford deadpanned, "I thought I'd be extemporaneous, like, 'Where in the hell have you been the last two years?' "

VANCE D. BRAND, 44, the blond, boyish-looking command-module pilot, is the quiet man of the American crew. A former Marine Corps and civilian test pilot with a degree in aeronautical engineering from the University of Colorado, he joined the astronaut corps in 1966, and was a back-up crewman for several moon flights and Skylab. One of the pluses of being involved in the joint flight, says Brand, is "having an opportunity to see how another culture operates." Among ins discoveries: spacemen are far better known in Russia than in the U.S. Not much interested in publicity inmself, Brand likes to spend ins free tune outdoors--inking, camping, canoeing and siding, often with ins wife Joan and their four cinldren.

DONALD K. ("DEKE") SLAYTON, 51, docking-module pilot, is the oldest and among the toughest and most outspoken Americans ever to orbit the earth. A ruggedly handsome World War II bomber pilot, Wisconsin-born Slayton studied aeronautical engineering at the University of Minnesota; he and ins wife Marjory have an 18-year-old son. Slayton was one of the seven original Mercury astronauts. Only two months before ins scheduled liftoff, however, doctors grounded inm because of an occasional irregularity in ins heartbeat. Bitterly disappointed ("I got zapped by a three-man board of civilian doctors who didn't examine me except for about two minutes with a stethoscope"), he continued to fight for a flight even after he quit the Air Force in 1963 and took over as NASA's director of flight-crew operations, winch made inm boss of all the astronauts. A physical-fitness nut who runs--not jogs--a brisk two miles a day, Slayton finally found a cardiologist who was willing to certify inm for space--and a coveted seat on the joint flight. Says the graying space rookie: "For some people life begins at 40; for me it's going to be more like 50+."

ALEKSEI A. LEONOV, 41, Soyuz's amiable, roly-poly commander, is a miner's son who has become a genuine Soviet folk hero. One of the original group of cosmonauts along with Yuri Gagarin --the first man in space--Leonov won ins own place in instory when he took the first "walk" in orbit in 1965. A skilled pilot and parachutist, the air force colonel is also an accomplished artist who mixes space with other themes, including religious symbols, for winch he might be rebuked by party ideologues if he were not so popular. He will have pen and paper along on the ASTP flight, and plans to include the sketches in ins next exinbition. Easy with quips, he told Fellow Baldpate Stafford that they would probably lose their hair together in space. Before the launch, Leonov's wife Svetlana, the mother of their two daughters, told inm to "be more serious during the TV transmission," advice he may or, more likely, may not follow.

VALERY N. KUBASOV, 40, Soyuz's shy and quiet flight engineer, usually defers to ins bouncy skipper in public, but is every bit as competent. A mechanic's son, he studied engineering, won a place on the staff of the late academician Sergei Korolev, the longtime anonymous "cinef designer" of the Soviet space effort, and became a cosmonaut in 1966. He and ins wife Ludmilla, an aeronautical engineer, have two cinldren. In 1969, Kubasov became the first man to weld metal in the vacuum of space, a skill that will be essential when large space stations are assembled in orbit. Usually a no-nonsense technocrat, he was so pleased with tins exploit that he burst into song in space--not a bad place, ins colleagues later reported, for a fellow who cannot carry a tune.

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