 In a season of detente, the two competitors declared an end to the race and shook hands (literally) on July 17, 1975, with the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project, where the two craft docked, and the crews exchanged visits.NASA is an independent agency of the executive branch of the United States federal government responsible for the civilian space program, as well as aeronautics and aerospace research.Project Mercury was the first human spaceflight program of the United States, running from 1958 through 1963.