Launch date: May 18, 1969
Landing date: May 26, 1969
Apollo 10 was the second crewed mission (after Apollo 8) to orbit the Moon and the first to travel to the Moon with the full Apollo spacecraft: Command and Lunar Modules.
The primary objectives of the mission were to demonstrate crew, space vehicle, and mission support facilities during a manned lunar mission and to evaluate the Lunar Module during lunar environment. The mission was the last one to carry out the crucial series of tests before attending the first Moon landing; in fact it was a full “dry run” for the Apollo 11 mission, in which all operations except the actual lunar landing were performed.
Apollo 10 took off on May 18, 1969, heading to the Moon. Tom Stafford and John Young took their Lunar Module, called Snoopy, to within 10 miles (16 km) of a touchdown, but there was never any intention of “going all the way” during this mission. NASA needed to be sure that the different stages between the CM and LM could be conducted safely above the lunar surface, just in case some kind of an emergency occurred during a descent.
Watching through the windows of Command Module, called Charlie Brown, John Young watched Snoopy glittering in the sunlight 80 miles (130 km) below him. When the time came for Snoopy’s ascent stage to make the climb back to Charlie Brown’s orbital altitude, the guidance computer experienced momentary confusion. The down-facing radas was processing data about lunar surface, while the up-facing radas was looking for Charlie Brown. A mispositioned switch caused two conflicting computer routines to run simultaneously. Snoopy became crazy, bucking and spinning, literally not sure whether it was trying to get away from the Moon or drop down toward it. Luckily Cernan and Stafford regained control and the computer was stabilised. Cernan said afterward, “I saw the lunar horizon go by about seven or eight times in 10 seconds, and that’s a hair-raising experience.”
To mention something curious, back on 2016 mission Apollo 10 was on the news again because new radio conversations on the mission were declassified and a TV show broadcasted in Discovery News suggested that the crew witnessed mysterious or alien signal while they were on the far side of the Moon. Far for being true, this music were actually radio interferences between the CM and LM.
On May 26 the spaceship returned to Earth setting a Guinness World Record for the highest speed attained by a manned vehicle (39,897 km/h) and splashed down in the Pacific ocean at 400 miles east of American Samoa.
After this mission, all was set, tested and calibrated for the Great Leap in the next mission. Alea iacta est!
Crew
| POSITION | ASTRONAUT |
| Comander | Thomas P. Stafford |
| Command Module Pilot | John W. Young |
| Lunar Module Pilot | Eugene A. Cernan |
Mission Insignia
