may 18th, 1969, we were almt

ready. man had orbited the moon once. had test flown the lunar module, the lunar landing craft in eth once. but before we wouomn to a lunar landing, there were still a number of things to be worked out. this the mission of apollo ten, in the words of its commander thomas stafford, to sort out all the unknowns and

pave the way for a lunar landing. it w a veteran crew spacecraft commander thomas stafford had flown on germany six and nine lunar module pilot gene cernan had flown with stafford on germany nine. john youngeen on germany three and germany ten. they would face problems on apollo ten, problems that would be solved for apollo 11. most be minor, but they would be solv stafford cernan, they brought to their mission dedication, responsibility, even amazemen tr television. they took us with them as they ed tir part in man's greatest adventure.

were go for a mission to the moon at this time. tom stafford reports. are go we're coming up in the 22nd mark t minus 20 seconds and counting 17 seconds and counting 15, 14, 13, 12, 11, ten, nine. gines on five, four, three,tart two, all engines running. once commenced liftoff. we have liftoff 49 minutes past the hour. so special right there, roger.

good ignition on the second stage. and that's blazing. was quite qu just like old times. beautiful out there. you got that ecstatic. and this is the greatestarly apollo ten was headed for its initial parking orbit around the earth after. the checkout in orbit. it was time for trl i trans lunar injection when the s4b engine to send apollo ten to theoon. 7 minutes. clearly, roger,nd yr go for ally four be looking at plan. that on people. all right, here we go. we can burn it got out apollo ten wi p burn. was on its way to the moon. now the command and service module separated fm the s4b

and turned around to dock with the lunar module. omas stafford turned on the small high resolution color television caman with the people of earth the spectacular sights of outer space. apollo ten took along all those who had made and we're making the conquest of the moon a reality. charlie. we can't be more than about five feet away right here. dan it'' a real stable earth. we feel you close. and finally. there, dr. fargo. roger, i again. houston, you're looking good. we can see m a rendezvous when it looks like you get that right out of capture.jennifer?

yes, roger. slap snap. and we're there. got to grace. roger astronauts, aka charlie. gene we can rank three day numbers on the lam, t?dockg whee docking, apollo tenounted its first problem. the mylar containing the insulation on theaft d broken releasing a snowstorm of fiberglass inhe zo gravity. hey, we're going to have a heck of a cleaning job here. e separation. all of the seal, all of the valve is really a heck of a mess here for apollo 11, it would fixed. then we watched as theyulled of the s4b and got our first live color pictures of the blue planet earth. charlie, this is it. it's hard. and describe your considerable personal -- guide. e the polar cap in

incredible. we it all here saying its colors are really beautiful. that's great. and the plaque is black. but you ever c conceive is a setting for all this, right. so stafford young and cernan began their coast away from earth, their speed, continually dropping as the arms of earth's gravity tried to pull them backf the space craft. they performed aady rotation. yeah, sounds like were friendly about 55,000 miles out. yeah, that's right. , like a long way from john. it was time to continually check the trajectory, the spacecraft, the command module call sign, charlie brown, the lunar module, snoopy. it was time for conversation and it was time for showing the people home on the earth what space travel is like, how, how

wo you have your choice. if you don't like things right far enough to go upside says. roger, down here. okay, we got one in each direction. that's the only way to. farther and farther from earth stafford, young and cernan fw their wingless flight. now off the rotating home planet. they a night became only a progression of minutes as the specraft rotated at three revolutions an hour for about to finish. but i am still trying to. we're going to strike out throhout the world. we should be around the moon. roger. reality, real eyeball hands. tehran trace up being flipped

four and a half. houston. sounds like we're ready for a anhere is your horoscope ready. for today. lo ten thomas stafford. you should concentrate on finishing things that you have already started. today's a will be a moderate. use t ttake inventory. john young you will have a day today. this will give you time to concentrate on the work ahead. ll eoy your surroundings and companion and dino you arre. give careful thought to your working and driving habits. dohing nice for your friend. ady r lunar orbit. ten was checklists gone over clocized cd as timnar bit insertion burn neared. the men in mission control concentrated on their display.

is just stunned. apollo ten tried looking out as far ascan tell, the top perch we film here fell apart but we'll atever it's there plus 60 miles an hour guaranteed i'm there and in houston 2 minutes along with everybody is has got the okay and we'll see around on the other side in orbit roger l0s loss of signal the burn to place thepa lunar orbit would take place behind moon out of contact with it. later, a second burn would make the orbit circular 60 miles ov moon. the flight controllers waited for aos acquisition of signal. we have a u.s.. pilot in houston over roger houston, apollo ten. you can tell the world that we

have arrived. as the view. and charlie, it might sound corny, but the view is really out of this world. for the second time, three americans orbited the moon. the electronic sensors of miss film, the manned spaceflight network followed their flight, measuring precisely their orbital path information vital to the success of the first manned landing. on the first orbit, the crew turned the tv camera on the lunar landscape. see the here as the first real thing positive of i see that. i recognize that boy, it really stafford, young, a quarter of a million miles from s earth, 60 miles above our desolate satellite.

well, that's this is really a rugged planet. but also looking at. it, the erosion in some of the valleys, we could see down here, that's going to be a real kick tomoow down at 50,000 feet over. that is going to happen. hello used to apollo ten. we've got a beautiful view of the earth here that is absolutelystic now it was time for a lunar module pilot, gene cernan, to crawl into the lunar module called snoopy to check it out for the next day's descent. his evaluation, and i personally

am very happy with the fella and i hope we can give you a better report tomorrow. you bet yourife. you watch snoopy. well, tonight and make him sleep there and take him out for a walk and let him stretch his legs in the morning. oh, okay. the next day, stafford and cernan were in the lunar module john young in the command module ca brown. they checked out snoopy for the last time. on t involved entering the tunnel, connecting snoopy and charlro sure that the spacecraft patches did notk. but again. we cannot give a simple command over. right. you understand, colonel? why not? man. this was a real pblem. the vent pipe seemed to be clogged, however, the hatch integrity was checked by reducing the pressure in the lunar module. the inability t to reduce pressure in the tunnel. also caused the three and one

half degree rotation between the two spacecraft. but not enough to endanger undocking. but for apollo 11 it would be fixed. okay, got it. brown and slope. nuteare going over the hill here. go for undock and we'll figure ran out of that. roger. the undocking took place behind the mwhen contact was reestablid snoopy andwn we ready for the separation maneuver prior to descent the rom hn young and charlie is they get.u never know twitter ain't nobody there but one have don't know how small it looks when you're asar as we are.

they were below the radar trikthe vhf range. you ever okay? my transponder is on transponder operate.n and test swis i certainly get the radar signal pice of radar equipment and the command module was not functioning. without it, th rendezvous and no low orbit the moon.e in mission control, and in the two spacecraft switch positions and procedures were rechecked for the descent and subsequent rendezvous were the heart of the aplo ten. mission from mission control. one last ditch instruction was set up. roger hoou recycle the power switch? charlie brown command module. yang turn the switch o

on again. hey, that you guys advised all switched on. first of all, buddy, buddy know that a little thing, a stuck switch. for apollo 11, it would be corrected. okay. also scenarios and we'll see if asked about 6 hours. i have a good time. i'll work on there. yeah. go get a load from up there. anything. i update. charlie brown,ouston, 45 seconds to blow out your cell. go for dlr deo. i decent orbit insertion would bout80 degrees from landing site to the primary site for according to the

inexorable laws ofelestial mechanics, this burn of the lunar module descent engine would put staord cernan and snoopy less than ten miles above the site. once more in mission control. they waited for word the moon at the telegraph. rock i about the boulders been right now eight miles above the anent hills.000 feet oth then a communications problem.ns released. now flash through charlie brown. fellow is serious and it is moving right so go ahead way is going we have done a lot of charlie guy you waving your way up themd freeway roger fantastic journey fantastic ride. charlie bear that'c

they really. believe me and i know you, joe. and that satellite are on our got a real big erica dunbar back there. that guy worked on heroic a such a type of something heralds off then of the key aspects of the mission thomas stafford describes the landing site selected for apollo 11. yeah okay. thk ushed full of front of the orbiter. photos show the fl estimate, 25 to 30% say so clear. yes. so if the p over

time, at least from what we can cfl phase, it should probably a problem or it got down to the wrong area.n't have a hovercrafs going to have to shove offnow ie rendezvous on this first low orbit. they would make the initial to put snoopy and charlie brown into the proper phase relationship for the coming maneuvers. okay, we're burning john. we're blind. snoopy rea for the rendezvous sequence to performed on the next orbit.ore, they roue battered face of the moon. charlie, we just saw ear and it's got to be magnificent. mamust see things, but if his view is any better than ours, it's got to be fantastic.

before the actual rendezvous, rns ok place, the lunar module's ascent aid would have to be separated from the descent stage. but during the separation, something went wrong. began to rollidly out of around him. that's the last. editor's and move houston. re gng to close the game malarkey now something went wild in so and we're all set we didn't lock and we're going to head to the btom charlie brown houston they're going it they had a while race you know but they got it under control it was an unexpected system malfunction stafford and cernan had it under control in thomas stafford and gene cernan were never in any kind of danger. but for a few seconds they didn't know that for apollo 11,

found and corrected. now the rendezvous sequence came step by step. it was old hat for the veteran germany. stafford had flown five rendezvous cernanor and young three. so snoopy rose up from the moon to join charlie brown and go, we're about ready to dock. standby our first guy there is about five feet. so what could beautiful. hello? yes, griffin down to us and each other. roger that. we had him down here, but the day was not over yet. they still had to prepare the stage and command module for. their final separation. oh, we're all going to command module. the tomahawk drop and we're about to do it. and standing the front there, when you give them the word

word, we can go d separate now. charlie brown okay. i can countdown. we're all set to go for 75 or oh my. oh are there or then they right into the sun. allyacike so a lot of people did a good job. and at the end vehicle so far,a. we concur. and that charlie brown is not smart either. the next day, apollo ten stayed in orbit around moon, the orbital deviations of apollo ten were being determined with greater and, greater precision on board. there was more photography, more

navigation. with each revolution, the figures were being pinned down closer and in preparation for the arrival of apollo 11, joe, there's a very interesting looking of things that sort of look like volcanoes. there's one on the backside of ent esthetic, you've got a pushover for. t noit was time to head home to earth trends. injeion, the one burn of the mission that absolutely to wo the burn that would push apollo ten out of its lunar orbit. everything looks good for roger virgo here on the way home

make again this most critical of bend the moon cut off from earth we contact. o we are returning to the earth we're glad to have you on the way back then for the last time apollo ten watched the sapphire called earth rise over a stark lunar and they had throughout the missionord,oung and cernan shared with us the sights and feelings of their voyage through coln. you guys. are really hauling the mail out. oh, you better believe we're climbing straight. the fantastic fight is like we were struck straight up to the center, the moon. it's you're going about 6000fee.

as the crew of apollo ten hurdled earth where they decided to perform one more test, a test not in the original objective of the mission, but a test that would solve the problem that had baffled space engineers for years from where theyly up with the idea of using treasure an shaved cream to . absolutely. that's what the species does for you. i tell you charlie. that's one of the most refreshing things that's days.ned in the last c that was great. you guys really look good. down from the moon toward the coast of earth, apollo ten spit on its incandescent path toward its dawn rendezvous at sea. wow.

problems had been met, faced and solved for that was the mission of apollo to sort out pave the way. but as the men of apollo ten were reunited with their es and friends, attention already turning elsewhere apollo 11 had been rolled out to its launch pad even before apollo had entered orbit. about the moon. now it stood pointed toward a distant sea. how much we're going to progress in the future and lift your imagination. if we learned our energies and gave our perspectives+k■s