APOLLO 10

Mission

Kind: Crewed lunar orbital CSM/LM flight (F)

State: Successful

Place: Moon

Operator: NASA

Date

Start:

Duration: 8 days, 3 minutes, 23 seconds

Mission Ending

"Life's like a movie, write your own ending. Keep believing, keep pretending." - Jim Henson

Rocket

Rocket: Saturn V SA-505

Kind: NASA

Manufacturer: CSM: North American RockwellLM: Grumman

Mass: 98,273 pounds (44,576 kg)

Launch Site: Kennedy LC-39B

Flyby

"Requesting permission for flyby." Maverick - Top Gun

Orbit

Reference System: Selenocentric

1º Orbit: Lunar

2º Orbit: Lunar

Lander

Region: 15°2′S 164°39′W / 15.033°S 164.650°W / -15.033, -164.650 (Apollo 10 splashdown)

Date: May 26, 1969, 16:52:23 (1969-05-26UTC16:52:24Z) UTC

Component: Lunar module

Apollo 10 was a May 1969 human spaceflight, the fourth crewed mission in the United States Apollo program, and the second (after Apollo 8) to orbit the Moon. It was the F mission: a "dress rehearsal" for the first Moon landing, testing all the components and procedures just short of actually landing. While astronaut John Young remained in the Command Module orbiting the Moon, astronauts Thomas Stafford and Gene Cernan flew the Apollo Lunar Module (LM) to a descent orbit within 8.4 nautical miles (15.6 km) of the lunar surface, the point where powered descent for landing would begin. After orbiting the Moon 31 times Apollo 10 returned safely to Earth, and its success enabled the first actual landing (Apollo 11) two months later. Apollo 10 set the record for the highest speed attained by a crewed vehicle: 39,897 km/h (11.08 km/s or 24,791 mph) on May 26, 1969, during the return from the Moon. The mission's call signs were the names of the Peanuts characters Charlie Brown and Snoopy, who became Apollo 10's semi-official mascots. Peanuts creator Charles Schulz also drew mission-related artwork for NASA.