may 18th, 1969, we were almady.

man had orbited the moon once. man had test flown the lunar module, the lunar landing craft in earth orbit once. but before we would commit man ar landing, there were still a number of things to be worked out. this was the mission of apollo ten, in the wf its commander thomas stafford, to sort out all the unknownsndveher landing. it w v crew spacecraft commander thomasd ha flown on germany six and nine lunar module pilote ce gan

had flown with stafford on germany nine. john young had been on germany three and germany ten. they would facproblems on apollo ten, problems that would be solved for apollo 11. most be minor, but they would be solved. an stafford young, cernan, they brought to their mission enthusiast aweso dedication, responsibility, even amazement and through the means of color television. they took us with them as they played their part in man's greatest adventure. we are go for a mission to the moon at this time. tom stafford reports. they go we're coming up in the 22nd mark t 20 seconds and counting 17 seconds and countingternal 15, 14, 13, 12, 11, ten, nine. we have ignition sequence start

engines on five, four, three, engines running. onceifto. 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 a sequence, just like old times. beautiful out there. you got that ecstatic. and this is the greatest early apollo ten was headed for its initial parking orbit around the

after. the checkout in orbit. it was time for trl i trans lunar injection when the burn of e apollo ten to the moon. tes. clearly, roger, stand your go ally four be looking at that on people. all right, here we we can burn it got out apollo ten with a perfect burn. was on its way to the mnothe coe module separated from the s4b and turned around to dock with the lunar module. for the first of many times, thomas stafforrn small high resolution color television camera and shared with the peopl earth the spectacular sights of outer spe. apollo ten took along all those who had made and weg

the conquest of the moon a charlie. e than about five feet away right here. dan it's like a real

itlem. the mylar containing the insulation on the spacecraft had broken releasi a snowstorm of fiberglass in the zero gravity. wng to have a heck of a cleaning job here. they have separation. al seal, all of the valve is really a heck of a mess up for apollo 11, it would be fixed. and got our first they pulled live color pictures of the blue planet earth. charlie, this is it. it's hard. and describe your considerable personal -- guide. you can see the polarap in incredible. it all here saying its colors are really beautiful. that's great. and the plaque is black. but you ever coulde is a stafford young and cernan began their coast away fromdro's

gravitypubrll them back. to control the temperature of space craft. they performed a slow, steady rotation. yeah, soundsé4 friendly about 55,000 miles out. yeah, that's right. so, like a long way from john. it was time to continually check the trajectory, the spacecraft, the command module call sign, charlie bnar module, snoopy. it was time for conversation and it was time for showing the people home on the earth what spacevel is like, how, how for wonderful. you have yr choice. if you don't like things right far enough to go upside down, i juo says. roger, down here. okay, we got one in each direction. that's the only way to. farther and farther earth

stafford, young and cernan flew their wiss now off the rotating home planet. eyly a progression of minutes as the spacecraft rotated at thres an o finish. but i am still trying to. we're going to strike out throughout the world. we sho be around the moon. rogereality, real eyeball hands. tehran trace up being flipped four and a half. apollo ten houston. soundse ready for a naval drill in the flight deck. and here is your horoscope ready for today. apollo ten thomas stafford. u concentrate on finishing things that you have ted. today's a will be a moderate. use this time to take inventory.

john young you will have a slow day today. thisl you time to concentrate on the work ahead. you will enjoy your surroundings and companion and dino you are go breathe. give careful thought to your working and driving habits. do something nice for your friend. the crew of apollo ten was getting ready for lunar orbit. checklists gone over clocks, synchronized computers, updated as the time for the lunar orbit insertion burn neared. the men in mission control concentrated oei is just stunned. apollo ten tried looking out as far as i. can tell, the top perch when the film here fell apart but we'll take your word for it for whatever it's miles an hour guaranteed i'm there and houston 2 minutes along with everybody is has got

the okay and we'll see around on thethrbit roger l0s loss of signal the burn to place the spacecraft into lunar orbit would take place behind moon out of contact with secd be the orbit circular 60 miles above the mn. the flight controllers waited for aos signal. we have a u.s.. pilot in houston over roger houston, a you can tell the world that we haveiv. 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 tr of miss film, the manned spaceflight neorirlight,

measuring precisely their orbital path information vital to success of the first manned lan.on the first orbit, w turned the tv camera on the scarred lunar landscape. see the fear up here as the first real thing positive of that. i see that. i recognth boy, it really standsut. stafford, young, a quarter of a million miles from earth, 60 miles above our so 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 tomorrow down at 50,000 feet over. so we copy that is going to

hello used to apollo ten. we've got a beautiful view of theth he that is absolutely fantastic. now it was time for a lunar ■8ot, gene cernan, to crawl into the lunar module called snoopy to checkt t for the next day's descent. his evaluation, and i personally am very happy with the fella and i hope we can givu report tomorrow. you bet your life. you watch snoopy. , tonight and make him sleep there and taor a walk and let him stretch his legs in the morning. oh, okay. the next day, stafford and cernan wer t module

john young in the command module called charlie brown. they checked out snoopy for the last time. one of the items involved entering the tunnel, connecting snoopy and charlie brown to make sure that the spacecraft patches did not leak. but again. we cannot give a simple command over over. right. you understand, colonel? why not? man. this was a real problem. the vent pipe seemed to be clogged, however, the hatch integrity was checked by ssur in the lunar module. the inability t to reduce also caused the three and one half degree rotation betwspacec. but not enough to endanger undocking. but for apollo 11 it would be fixed. okay, got it. brown and slope. 3 minutes are going over the hill here. undock and we'll figure ran out of that.

oh roger roger. the undocking took place behin . when contact was reestablished snoopy and charlie brown were ready for the separation maneuver prior to descent the word from john young and charlie brown was you never know how big is they get. twitter ain't nobody there but one guy didn't have don't know how small it looks when you're as far away as we are. they were below the radar transponder or like the vhf range. youve my transponder is on transponder two is on and test switches and operate. i certainly get the radar signal an and electronic

piece of radar equipment and the command module was not functioning. without it, there would be no rendezvous and no low orbit descent in the lunar module to the moon. in mission control, and in the two spacec s positions and procedures were rechecked for the descent and suuerendezve apollo ten. mission from mission control. one last ditch instruction was se up. roger how about trying to recycle the power switch? charlie brown in the command module. yang turn the switch off, then on again. hey, that you guys advised swit. first of all, buddy, buddy know abouthaa little thing, a stuck switch. but for apollo 11, it would be corrected. okay. also scena a■f

asked about 6 hours.i have a good time. i'll work on there. yeah. go get a load from up there. john. and don't accept anything. i update. ■ñ■!scharlie brown, houston, 45 seconds to blow out your cell. go for dlr deo. i decent orbit insertion would come about 180 degrees from landing site to the primary site for apollo 11, according to the inexorable laws of celestial mechanics, this burn of thelunae would put stafford cernan and ess an ten miles above the site. once more in mis telegraph. for word the moon at

they're down there above the ckouers been rightht miles above the surface, 35,000 feet over the ancient hills. then a communications problem. contact with snoopy was released. now flash through charlie brown. 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 the freeway roger fantastic journey fantastic ride. charlie bear that's fantastic they really. believe me and i know you, joe.

and that satellite are on our got a real big erica dunbar back there. thatoic a such a type of something heralds off then of the key aspe mission thomas stafford selected for apollo 11.ite yeah okay. yes the approach look flushed otos show the fullimate, 25 to 30% say so clear. yes. so if the lem has enough up over , wh we can cfl phase, it should probably a problem or it got down to the wrong area. you don't have a hovercraft is going to have to shove off off. now it was time to begin the rendezvous on this first lot. they would make the initial to put snoopy and charlie ntohe pre

relationship for the coming maneuvers. okay, we're burning john. we're blind. snoopy was ready for the rendezvous sequence to performed on the next orbit. once more, they rounded the baered face of the moon. charlie, we just saw earthrise and it's got to be magnificent. charlie i don't know how the big man must see things, but if his s y better than ours, it's got to be fantastic. before the actual rendezvous, burns took place, the lunar module's ascent aid would have to be separated from the descent stage. bu separation, something went wrong.

snoopyegano roll rapidly out of around him. ' the last. editor's and move houston. malarkey now something went wild in so and we're a set we didn't lock and we're going to head to the bottom charlie brown houston they're going it they had a whilcet they got it under control it was an unexpected system malfunction cernan had it under control in thomas stafford and cernan were never in any kind of danger. but for a few seconds they didn't know that for apollo 11, it would be fnd and corrected. now the rendezvous sequence came step by step. w old hat for the veteran crew in germany. stafford hadndezvous cernan for. so snoopy rose up from the moon to join charlie brown and go,

w' tdock. standby our first guy there is what could beautiful. heyes, griffin, throw it 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 oh, we're all going to command module. the tomaha drop and we're about to do it. and standing the front there, when yiv word, we can go ahead and separate now. charlie brown okay. i can countdown. we're all set to go for 7 my. oh warren are there or then they

leave and it rained and maybe gh sun. actually like so a lot of people did a good job. and at the end vehicle so far, that l winner. 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 greater and, greater precision on board. there was more photography, more landmark tracking and navigation. with each revolution, the figures were being pinned down closer the arrival of apollo 11, joe, there's a very interesting looking of things that sort of there's one on the backside of those.

if it was a differ esthetic, you've got a pushover for. but now it was time to head home to earth trends. earth injection,he one burn of the mission that absolutely to work push apollo ten out of its lunar orbit. everything looks good for ceo roger virgo here on the way home s most critical of all maneuvers would take place behind tom earth we contact. roger that we are returning to the earth we're glad to have you

on the way backe last time apollo ten watched the sapphire called earth rise over a stark lunar horizon. and they had throughout the mission stafford, young and cernan shared with us the sights and feelings of their voyage through color television. you guys. are really hauling the mail out of that. oh, you better believe we're climbing straight. the fantastic fight is like we werep tohe center, the moon. it's you're going about 6000 feet a second. 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 spac engineers for years from where they finally up with the treasure and freshly shaved cream to

amazing them. absolutely. that's what the species does for you. i tellou that's one of the most refreshing things that's happened in the last couple days. that was great. yoys look good. down from the moon toward the coast of earth, apollo ten spit on its incandesc path toward its dawn rendezvous at sea. wow.problems had been met, faced solved for that was the mission of apollo to sort out the and pave the way.

but as the men of apollo ten were reunited with their families and friends, attention already turning elsewhere 11 had been rolled out to its ort.ch pad even before apollo about the moon. now it stood pointed tow distant sea. how much we're going to progress in the future and lift your imagination. if we learned our energies and gave our p■3today's clas