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Apollo 10
Launched: May 18, 1969
Splashed Down: May 26, 1969
Crew:
Thomas P Stafford
John W Young
Eugene A Cernan
This was the 'dress rehearsal' for an actual lunar landing - the ultimate in space exploration. Apollo 10 entered lunar orbit, separated from the Lunar Module, and the LM (named 'Snoopy') with Stafford and Cernan aboard decended to within nine miles of the lunar surface before returning and redocking with the waiting John Young in the Command Module (named 'Charlie Brown').
The astronauts tested the LM's radar and ascent engine and surveyed Apollo 11's eventual landing site, the Sea of Tranquility. This mission also served as a test of the extensive new Apollo tracking and control network on Earth.
Another first for this mission: For the first time, live colour TV pictures were broadcast into homes from space.
Mission details:
Apollo-10 (26)
Pad 39-B (1)
Saturn-V AS-505 (5)
1st Launch LC-39B
High Bay 2
MLP 3
Firing Room 3
Crew:
Eugene A Cernan
John W Young
Thomas P Stafford
Payload:
CSM-106 (Charlie Brown) and LM-4 (Snoopy)
Mission Objective:
Demonstrate performance of LM and CSM in lunar gravitation field. Evaluate CSM and LM docked and undocked lunar navigation. All mission objectives were achieved
Launch:
18 May 1969; 00:49:00 EDT Kennedy Space Center FL. No Delays
Orbit:
Altitude: 190km x 184km
Orbits:
Duration: 08 Days, 0 hours, 03 min, 23 seconds
Splashdown:
26 May 1969; 00:52 EDT. Landing point 15deg 2min South by 164deg 39min West; Miss distance not available. Crew on board USS Princeton at 13:31 EDT; spacecraft aboard ship at 14:28
Mission Highlights:
Apogee, 190 kilometers; perigee, 184km; translunar injection, 02:39:21 MET; maximum distance from Earth, 399,194km; first CSM-LM docking in translunar trajectory, 03:17:37 MET; lunar orbit insertion, 75:55:54 MET; first LM undocking in lunar orbit, 98:11:57 MET; first LM staging in lunar orbit, 102:45:17 MET; first manned LM-CSM docking in lunar orbit, 106:22:02 MET; transearth injection 137:36:29 MET
Dress rehearsal for Moon landing. First manned CSM/LM operations in cislunar and lunar environment; simulation of first lunar landing profile. In lunar orbit 61.6 hours, with 31 orbits. LM taken to within 15,243 m of lunar surface. First live colour TV from space. LM ascent stage jettisoned in orbit
Apollo officials in the launch control centre during the countdown for Apollo 10. From left, standing: George M. Low, Apollo Spacecraft Program Manager; Lt Gen. Sam Phillips, Apollo Program Director; and Donald Slayton, Flight Crew Operations Director, MSC. Seated, John Williams, Spacecraft Operations Directior; Walter Kapryan, Launch Operations Deputy Director; and Kurt Debus, KSC Director
