50 Tenge Soyuz-Apollo Mission

The Apollo-Soyuz Test Project of July 1975 was the first joint US-Soviet spaceflight — and, more pointedly, one of the earliest tangible products of détente under the Helsinki process. Kazakhstan's commemorative interest is grounded in geography: the Soyuz spacecraft launched from and returned to Baikonur Cosmodrome, still leased from Kazakhstan by Russia and the operational heart of Soviet crewed spaceflight since Gagarin.

This 2009 issue arrived 34 years after the mission itself, part of a broader Kazakhstani program asserting historical ownership over the Baikonur legacy.