Just before this BBC podcast gets underway, here's something you may not know.

My name's Linda Davies and I Commission Podcasts for BBC Sounds.

As you'd expect, at the BBC we make podcasts of the very highest quality featuring the most knowledgeable experts and genuinely engaging voices.

What you may not know is that the BBC makes podcasts about all kinds of things like pop stars,

poltergeist, cricket, and conspiracy theories and that's just a few examples.

If you'd like to discover something a little bit unexpected, find your next podcast over at BBC Sounds.

BBC World Service and now Witness History with me Nick Holland.

We're going back to a symbolic moment in 1975

when the world watched an

extraordinary meeting between Cold War enemies in an unlikely location.

This is Apollo Saturn launch control.

The countdown has proceeded smoothly this morning.

A, seven, 6.

On the 15th of July in 1975, old rivals the Soviet Union and the United States

both launched massive rockets into the sky within hours of each other.

Engine sequence start, 1, 0,

0, launch, commit, we have a liftoff.

All engines building up the grub.

Thankfully, in spite of their death, engines building up the drub.

Thankfully, in spite of their differences, the two superpowers weren't firing long-range weapons. Instead, they were sending up astronauts and cosmonauts for a unique rendezvous, a rendezvous with each other in space.

Okay, and that line is not on the 4-B, we got an acceleration. Two ships from two different countries attempting to dock in space had never been done before.

That it was being tried at all was all the more remarkable given the political realities of the previous decade.

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