Going slightly off thread, but in the same vein, when NASA found our how and with what the Russians controlled their space craft, they were within an inch of cancelling the Apollo/Soyuz link up. In the end they came up with a plan that more or less had Soyuz launch first and establish an orbit - wherever - then Apollo would go and find them. All manoeuvering was done by the Apollo spacecraft.
Apparently all flight sequencing was done on the equivalent of a Player Piano roll.
Roger.