APOLLO 10

'Apollo 10' was the fourth manned mission in the Apollo program. The mission included the second crew to orbit the Moon, and the test of the lunar module in lunar orbit. The module came to within 8.4 nautical miles (15.6 km) of the lunar surface during practice maneuvers. According to the 2001 Guinness World Records Apollo 10 has the record for the highest speed attained by a manned vehicle: 39,897 km/h (11.08 km/s or 24,791 mph).
The speed record was set during the return from the Moon on 26 May 1969.

Contents

Crew

Backup Crew

Support Crew

Flight Directors

Mission parameters

Earth Orbit

Lunar Orbit

LM - CSM Docking

LM closest approach to lunar surface

Mission highlights

Mission insignia

Trivia

Images

See also

Notes

References

External links

Crew

★ Thomas Stafford (3), commander

★ John W. Young (3), command module pilot

★ Eugene Cernan (2), lunar module pilot

Backup Crew

★ Gordon Cooper, commander

★ Donn Eisele, command module pilot

★ Edgar Mitchell, lunar module pilot

Support Crew

★ Charles Duke

★ Joe Engle

★ James Irwin

★ Jack Lousma

Flight Directors

★ Glynn Lunney, Black team

★ Gerald Griffin, Gold team

★ Milton Windler, Maroon team

★ Pete Frank, Orange team

Mission parameters

★ 'Mass:' CSM 28,834 kg; LM 13,941 kg

Earth Orbit

★ 'Perigee:' 184.5 km

★ 'Apogee:' 190 km

★ 'Inclination:' 32.5°

★ 'Period:' 88.1 min

Lunar Orbit

★ 'Perilune:' 111.1 km

★ 'Apolune:' 316.7 km

★ 'Inclination:' 1.2°

★ 'Period:' 2.15 hours

LM - CSM Docking

★ 'Undocked': May 22, 1969 - 19:00:57 UTC

★ 'Redocked': May 23, 1969 - 03:11:02 UTC

LM closest approach to lunar surface

★ May 22 1969, 21:29:43 UTC
On May 22 1969 at 20:35:02 UTC, a 27.4 second LM descent propulsion system burn inserted the LM into a descent orbit of 112.8 km by 15.7 km so that the resulting lowest point in the orbit occurred about 15° from lunar landing site 2 (the Apollo 11 landing site). The lowest measured point in the trajectory was 15.6 km above the lunar surface at 21:29:43 UTC.

Mission highlights

This dress rehearsal for a Moon landing brought Stafford and Cernan's lunar module, nicknamed "Snoopy", to 8.4 nautical miles (15.6 km) from the lunar surface. Except for that final stretch, the mission went exactly as a landing would have gone, both in space and on the ground, where Apollo's extensive tracking and control network was put through a dry run. Shortly after leaving low Earth orbit, the command/service module separated from the S-IVB stage, turned around, and docked its nose to the top of the lunar module still nestled in the S-IVB. The CSM/LM stack then separated from the S-IVB for the trip to the moon. Upon reaching lunar orbit, Young remained alone in his command module "Charlie Brown," while Stafford and Cernan flew separately in the LM. They checked out the LM's radar and ascent engine, rode out a momentary gyration in the lunar lander's motion (due to a faulty switch setting), and surveyed the Apollo 11 landing site in the Sea of Tranquillity. This test article of the lunar module was not equipped to land, however. Apollo 10 also added another first - broadcasting live color TV from space.
On May 22 1969 Apollo 10's lunar module flew within 15.6 km of the Moon's surface.
:Launched: May 18, 1969 from Pad 39B
:Returned: May 26, 1969
:Crew members: Tom Stafford, commander; John Young, command module pilot; Gene Cernan, lunar module pilot
:Command module: Charlie Brown
:Lunar module: Snoopy
The command module is displayed at the Science Museum in London. The lunar module is in heliocentric orbit, thus making it the only intact lunar module ascent stage out of all of the lunar modules sent into space (Apollos 5, 9, 13 LM ascent stages burned up in Earth's atmosphere, ''Apollo 11'' LM ascent stage left in lunar orbit - eventually crashed on moon, Apollos 12, 14, 15, 16, 17 LM ascent stages deliberately crashed into moon) .

Mission insignia

The shield-shaped emblem for the flight shows a large, three-dimensional Roman numeral X sitting on the moon's surface, in Stafford's words, "to show that we had left our mark." Although it did not land on the moon, the prominence of the number represents the significant contributions the mission made to the Apollo program. A CSM circles the moon as a LM ascent stage flies up from its low pass over the lunar surface. The earth is visible in the background. A wide, light blue border carries the word APOLLO at the top and the crew names around the bottom. The patch is trimmed in gold.

Trivia

★ Apollo 10 was the only Saturn V mission to launch from pad 39B.

★ Of the three backup crew members, only Edgar Mitchell would get a space flight after this mission, which would have originally been on Apollo 13, but because of nearly 10 years since Alan Shepard's Mercury 3 flight (due to a medical disqualification), Mitchell and Shepard would fly on Apollo 14, swapping flights with Jim Lovell and his crew, who were the backup crew for Apollo 11 at the time of the Apollo 10 flight.

★ While not included in the official mission logo, due to the use of their names as callsigns, the Peanuts characters Charlie Brown and Snoopy became semi-official mascots for the mission, as seen here [1] and here [2]. Peanuts creator Charles Schulz also drew some special mission-related artwork for NASA.

Images

See also

★ Splashdown (spacecraft landing)

★ List of artificial objects on the Moon

Notes

1. ''Apollo'' by the Numbers: A Statistical Reference (SP-4029) Richard W. Orloff

References

★ NASA NSSDC Master Catalog

★ APOLLO BY THE NUMBERS: A Statistical Reference by Richard W. Orloff (NASA)

★ Apollo 10 Characteristics - SP-4012 NASA HISTORICAL DATA BOOK

★ Lattimer, Dick (1985). 'All We Did was Fly to the Moon''. Whispering Eagle Press. ISBN 0-9611228-0-3.

External links

★ Apollo 10 entry in Encyclopedia Astronautica

★ The Apollo Spacecraft: A Chronology

★ Apollo Program Summary Report

★ Mission Report: Apollo 10

★ Apollo 10 Moon Orbit Video