A Visual Voyage of Apollo 10

by John Uri | 2019-05-28

Apollo 10 lifted off on May 18, 1969. Aboard were astronauts Thomas Stafford, Eugene Cernan and John Young. They designated their Command Module “Charlie Brown” and their Lunar Module “Snoopy,” characters from the Charles Schulz Peanuts© comic strip. During their eight-day mission, they practiced all aspects of the lunar landing mission—except for the landing itself.

Three hours after launch, they were on their way to the Moon. Young, piloting Charlie Brown, plucked Snoopy from the rocket’s third stage. For three days, they coasted toward the Moon, sharing their mission with viewers on Earth with the first color TV broadcasts from space.

Following the three-day journey from Earth, Apollo 10 fired its Service Propulsion System engine and slipped into orbit around the Moon. Stafford and Cernan in Snoopy undocked from Young in Charlie Brown. During more than eight hours of free flight, they descended to within 47,000 feet of the lunar surface and took detailed photographs of the Apollo 11 landing site. After the successful test, Stafford and Cernan brought Snoopy back to Young in Charlie Brown. They beamed amazing color TV images of the Moon’s surface, as well as themselves in their spacecraft, back to Earth.

Watch the film taken by Apollo 10 during their low-altitude pass in Snoopy, showing the approach to the Apollo 11 landing site.

“Houston, we are returning to Earth,” Apollo 10 Commander Thomas Stafford radioed to mission control, announcing that the trans-Earth injection had been successfully completed. At the conclusion of the mission, Stafford, Cernan and Young could boast of having completed 31 orbits around the Moon before splashing down in the Pacific Ocean on May 26, 1969. Apollo 10 had successfully sorted out the unknowns in a dress rehearsal for the Moon landing, paving the way for the next historic mission.

Watch the Apollo 10 splashdown and recovery.

Next up: Apollo 11!

Take a visual voyage through history and Apollo 10’s biggest moments, below.

Apollo 10 crew of (left to right) Eugene Cernan, John Young and Thomas Stafford pose in front of their Saturn V rocket at Launch Pad 39B. Image Credit: NASA

Apollo 10 crew patch. Image Credit: NASA

Apollo 10 astronauts (front to back) Stafford, Young and Cernan prepare to leave the Manned Spacecraft Operations Building on their way to the launch pad. Image Credit: NASA

Mission control in Houston during the first day of the Apollo 10 mission. Seated in the foreground, from left, are Flight Directors Glynn Lunney and Gerald Griffin. Image Credit: NASA

The crew broadcasts live color television images of Snoopy during the Transposition and Docking Maneuver. Image Credit: NASA

View of Earth during a live color television broadcast. Image Credit: NASA

Color television view of Stafford during one of the broadcasts on the first mission day. Image Credit: NASA

Color television view of Cernan during one of the broadcasts on the first mission day. Image Credit: NASA

Color television view of Young during one of the broadcasts on the first mission day. Image Credit: NASA

View of mission control during one of the TV broadcasts from Apollo 10. Image Credit: NASA

Capcoms (left to right) Charles Duke, Bruce McCandless and Joe Engle confer during the mission. Image Credit: NASA

Barbara Cernan (right) in the Mission Control Center viewing room, accompanied by Flight Director Lunney. Image Credit: NASA

Astronauts (left to right) Edgar Mitchell, Jack Schmitt, Engle, Duke, McCandless and Deke Slayton gathered around the Capcom console during the LOI maneuver. Image Credit: NASA

Earthrise from Apollo 10. Image Credit: NASA

Three views of the lunar surface during a color TV broadcast from Apollo 10. The craters Messier and Messier A in the Sea of Fertility. Image Credit: NASA

Three views of the lunar surface during a color TV broadcast from Apollo 10. Close-up view of the crater Maskelyne. Image Credit: NASA

Three views of the lunar surface during a color TV broadcast from Apollo 10. The crater Gutenberg. Image Credit: NASA

Charlie Brown from Snoopy, shortly after undocking. Image Credit: NASA

Snoopy from Charlie Brown during the inspection fly-around. Image Credit: NASA

Map of the Moon showing the areas in the video above bordered in red.

Snoopy ascent stage approaches Charlie Brown. Image Credit: NASA

View of mission control during Lunar/Command Module docking. Image Credit: NASA

Apollo 10 view of the approach to Landing Site 2, the target for Apollo 11. Image Credit: NASA

Overhead view of the Apollo 11 landing site in the upper right portion of the image. Image Credit: NASA

View of the receding Moon taken from Apollo 10 shortly after TEI. Primarily a view of the lunar farside. Image Credit: NASA

View of the receding Moon taken from Apollo 10 shortly after TEI. Mare Crisium is the large dark feature at left. Image Credit: NASA

Another view of the receding Moon, showing shadows along the day-night terminator on the left edge of the Moon. The Sea of Tranquility is the large dark area near the Moon’s left limb. Image Credit: NASA

View of the Moon at roughly the point when Apollo 10 crossed into the Earth’s gravitational sphere of influence. Image Credit: NASA

View of Earth at roughly the point when Apollo 10 crossed into the Earth’s gravitational sphere of influence. Image Credit: NASA

Apollo 10 floats beneath its three main parachutes just moments before splashdown in the Pacific Ocean east of American Samoa. Image Credit: NASA

Apollo 10 astronauts are helped out of the Command Module by Navy recovery swimmers while a helicopter hovers ready to hoist them aboard. Image Credit: NASA

Apollo 10 astronauts (left to right) Cernan, Stafford and Young exit the recovery helicopter on the deck of the USS Princeton. Image Credit: NASA

Apollo 10 crew of (left to right) Cernan, Stafford and Young during welcoming ceremonies at Pago Pago, American Samoa, with Governor Owen S. Aspinall and Taotafa Aspinall. Image Credit: NASA

Apollo 10 crew (left to right) of Young, Stafford and Cernan upon their return to Ellington Air Force Base in Houston. Image Credit: NASA

Apollo 10 Command Module Charlie Brown on display at the London Science Museum.