Apollo 10: ‘Tell the world, we have arrived’

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Fifty years ago, Apollo 10 launched from Cape Kennedy on May 18, 1969. The Apollo 10 mission encompassed all aspects of an actual crewed lunar landing, except the landing. It was the first flight of a complete, crewed Apollo spacecraft to operate around the Moon. The crew members were Commander Thomas Stafford, Command Module Pilot John Young and Lunar Module Pilot Eugene Cernan. Objectives included a scheduled eight-hour lunar orbit of the separated lunar module, or LM, and descent to about nine miles off the moon’s surface before ascending for rendezvous and docking with the command and service module, or CSM, in about a 70-mile circular lunar orbit. Pertinent data to be gathered in this landing rehearsal dealt with the lunar potential, or gravitational effect, to refine the Earth-based crewed spaceflight network tracking techniques, and to check out LM programmed trajectories and radar, and lunar flight control systems. Twelve television transmissions to Earth were planned. All mission objectives were achieved.

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33 Comments

  1. The contradiction between this time of staggering achievement and humility by the Americans versus the immoral filth adminstrating the US today is utterly tragic. What fall from grace.

  2. The Apollo mission stories are amazing, because after Apollo:
    1) NASA demonstrated for 50 years they had no idea how to send a man above Low Earth Orbit.
    2) No man has ever got above LEO from any country. Ever.
    After NASA destroyed the original Apollo 11 video it seems a leap of faith is needed to believe in it.

    There's solid evidence from NASA that it was faked, but no evidence they ever got there. Even if you believe they did – it didn't teach them anything about space travel did it? What's Project Orion doing? – still testing splashdowns. Doh!

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