From the Introduction:

“History's first international space mission will present an unprecedented challenge to the personnel of the Spaceflight Tracking and Data Network to provide the vital link between the earth and the two orbiting spacecraft.

To meet this challenge many changes have been made to the data acquisition, communications and command equipment at the far flung global network of stations. Much of this was accomplished during the interim between Skylab and the Apollo-Soyuz programs.

Flight control personnel will maintain contact with the Apollo-Soyuz spacecraft through the Spaceflight Tracking and Data Network (STDN). This network is acomplex of fixed ground stations, portable ground stations, specially equipped aircraft and an instrumented ship used for transmitting signals to and receiving and processing data from the spacecraft during the mission from launch to Earth return. Each station includes tracking telemetry, television and command systems; the communications systems and switching systems.

Under the overall supervision of NASA Headquarters Office of Tracking and Data Acquisition (OTDA), the Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, is responsible for the operation and maintenance of the world-wide network. Approximately 2300 men and women at the global tracking sites and 500 personnel at engaged in the mission operations. …”

This document was produced at the Goddard Space Flight Center for possible inclusion in the ASTP Press Kit. It is a wonderful insight into the complexities of communications for the mission – including: • comms routing between Houston and Moscow. • transmission (and standards conversion) of TV between the US and USSR. • US and Russian spacecraft / spacecraft and spacecraft / ground communications. • Apollo TV downlink distribution. The document was preserved by Orroral Valley’s Philip Clark. The 5.8MB PDF file scanned by Colin Mackellar, July 2025.