(07/24/1975) -- The Commanding Officer of the USS New Orleans, Captain Ralph E. Neiger, welcomes aboard ASTP astronauts Thomas Stafford, Donald Slayton and Vance Brand. The astronauts splashed down in the Pacific Ocean west of Hawaii at 5:18 p.m. today, ending the nine-day ASTP mission. Themission was highlighted by the rendezvous and docking with a Soviet Soyuz spacecraft in Earth orbit.