Apollo 10
| Mission emblem | |||
|---|---|---|---|
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| Mission dates | |||
| Mission: | Apollo 10 | ||
| COSPAR-ID : | 1969-043A | ||
| Command module: | CM-106 | ||
| Service module: | SM-106 | ||
| Lunar Module: | LM-4 | ||
| Launcher: | Saturn V , serial number SA-505 | ||
| Call sign: | CM: Charlie Brown LM: Snoopy |
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| Crew: | 3 | ||
| Begin: | May 18, 1969, 4:49:00 p.m. UTC JD : 2440360.2006944 |
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| Starting place: | Kennedy Space Center , LC-39B | ||
| Lunar orbits: | 31 | ||
| Landing: | May 26, 1969, 16:52:23 UTC JD : 2440368.203044 |
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| Landing place: |
Pacific 15 ° 4 ′ S , 164 ° 39 ′ W |
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| Flight duration: | 8d 0h 3min 23s | ||
| Recovery ship: | USS Princeton | ||
| Team photo | |||
 Apollo 10 - v. l. No. Eugene Cernan , Thomas Stafford , John Young |
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| ◄ Before / After ► | |||
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Apollo 10 was the fourth manned space mission under the Apollo program . As planned, the lunar module was tested under real conditions for the first time in lunar orbit by rehearsing descent, ascent, rendezvous and docking maneuvers.
crew
On November 13, 1968, shortly after NASA announced that the flight of Apollo 8 would lead to the moon, the crew of Apollo 10, the dress rehearsal for the moon landing, was also announced. As expected, the Apollo 7 backup crew was nominated as main crew for this flight: Tom Stafford as commander, John Young as pilot of the Apollo spaceship and Eugene Cernan as pilot of the lunar module . Stafford and Young have already done two, Cernan a space flight in the Gemini program . Cernan had already flown at Gemini 9 with Stafford in command. Apollo 10 was the first American space flight since Mercury-Atlas 9 that not a single space novice was on board. In addition, Apollo 10 was the only Apollo mission whose crew members each carried out at least one additional space flight: John Young as commander of Apollo 16 and two space shuttle missions, Eugene Cernan as commander of Apollo 17 and Tom Stafford as commander of Apollo Soyuz Test project .
The substitute team was commanded by Gordon Cooper . At that time he was the last remaining Mercury astronaut, because Walter Schirra had left the Apollo program after Apollo 7 and Alan Shepard and Deke Slayton were still classified as unfit to fly. The other two replacement astronauts were Donn Eisele , who had just completed his first space flight with Apollo 7, as pilot of the Apollo command module and Edgar Mitchell , a space newcomer from the fifth selection group, as pilot of the lunar module.
If the normal rotation procedure had been used, Cooper, Eisele, and Mitchell would have formed the Apollo 13 crew . The command of this mission was later transferred to the Mercury veteran Alan Shepard after his convalescence , which so enraged the original commander Gordon Cooper that he left the astronaut corps in frustration. Furthermore, because of the incidents during the Apollo 7 mission, Donn Eisele was no longer considered for a space flight and only belonged to the replacement crew of Apollo 10 because no other astronaut would have been available in time. He was later replaced by space novice Stuart Roosa . In order to give Alan Shepard more time to prepare, the crew originally planned for Apollo 13 was exchanged with the crew planned for Apollo 14 under Commander Jim Lovell .
The support crew (support crew) consisted of James Irwin , Charles Duke , Joe Engle and Jack Lousma .
preparation
The individual parts of the Saturn rocket were delivered in November and December 1968. On March 11, 1969, while Apollo 9 was still in flight , the Saturn V could be rolled to the new launch pad 39B . The rocket carried the serial number AS-505, the command module CSM-106 (the CSM-105 capsule was reserved for tests and should not fly into space) and the lunar module LM-4.
Traditionally, the call signs of the two spaceships were selected by the crew. The command module was called Charlie Brown , and the lunar module was called Snoopy . Both names come from the Peanuts comic series by Charles M. Schulz . After the Apollo 9 crew chose Gumdrop (fruit gum) and Spider (spider) as their callsigns, NASA executives urged the Apollo 11 crew to pick reputable callsigns for the first moon landing.
Charles Duke, Joe Engle, Jack Lousma and Bruce McCandless served as liaison officers ( CapCom ) during the flight .
Flight history
begin
The Saturn V took off from Kennedy Space Center , Florida on May 18, 1969 at 16:49 UTC . Apollo 10 was the only mission in which a Saturn V took off from Launch Complex 39B, since the otherwise used Launch Complex 39A was already busy with preparations for Apollo 11 at that time. As with Apollo 8, an earth orbit was first entered. After two orbits of the earth, the third stage (S-IVB) of the Saturn rocket was fired a second time to set the Apollo spacecraft on its way to the moon.
On the way to the moon
Shortly after the second ignition, which put the spacecraft on its flight path to the moon, Young uncoupled the spacecraft (CSM for Command / Service Module) from the S-IVB stage of the launcher, turned it 180 ° and docked it on the Lunar module docking device. These maneuvers and the subsequent pulling out of the lunar module from the S-IVB stage succeeded without any problems, while television viewers all over the world watched the astronauts thanks to the first live color TV broadcast from space. Apollo 10 was thus on its way to the moon.
In the lunar orbit
After reaching the lunar orbit, all maneuvers were carried out as planned for the real landing of Apollo 11 . At about 110 km above the lunar surface, the CSM was separated from the lunar module (LM for Lunar Module). The descent of the LM began, which came close to the surface to about 14 km. That was the lowest altitude at which direct ascent was still possible. The LM was then placed in an elliptical orbit with an aposelenum about 305 km high. After another circumnavigation of the moon, the descent stage should be blasted off in order to initiate the ascent again. This only succeeded after repeated activation. Immediately afterwards, the computer control of the position control system failed and the module began to spin. One of the necessary switching operations was accidentally carried out twice by the crew. So a wrong program for position control ran. Stafford had to switch off the computer control and restore the correct position using the manual control. At the time when Stafford regained control of the LM, it was only a short distance from a cardan blockage (so-called gimbal lock ) and the resulting loss of automatic position control.
Under the tension during this incident, the astronauts Stafford and Cernan let themselves be carried away with some expletives that were sent unfiltered to Earth due to the active live broadcast. This later led to public criticism, particularly directed against Cernan.
Even the command to ignite the main engine in the ascent module did not succeed immediately. On the other hand, the rendezvous with the CSM and the docking went perfectly. After the astronauts changed trains and separated from the command module, the ascent engine was reignited and the ascent stage was brought into a solar orbit, in which it is still today, while the descent stage initially remained in lunar orbit and later crashed in an unknown location. In January 2018, astronomers discovered the object "2018 AV2", which was initially classified as an asteroid, later as an artificial object, and which on January 15, 2018 came close to the earth. A group of British amateur astronomers believe that this is probably the ascent stage of the lunar module "Snoopy".
landing
When re-entering on May 26, the landing capsule reached a speed of 39,897 km / h. This is still the highest (relative) speed that humans have ever achieved. At 16:52 UT , Apollo 10 landed safely in the Pacific and was recovered by Helicopter 66 from the aircraft carrier USS Princeton . Nineteen television programs, for the first time in color, were broadcast to earth during the mission .
The Apollo landing capsule is now on display at the Science Museum in London . Apart from small pieces of equipment, it is the only Apollo flight hardware outside the USA.
Significance for the Apollo program
The successful flight of Apollo 10 showed that NASA could complete Apollo flights in quick succession. It had only been seven months since Apollo 7 . Apollo 10 was already the fourth flight and two more were in preparation for the next few months.
In addition, Apollo 10 had performed all the maneuvers necessary for a moon landing, except for the landing itself. The problems that arose proved to be solvable, so that the first manned moon landing for Apollo 11 could be planned.
Special features and records
On re-entry, the greatest speed ever reached by humans was achieved (39,897 or 39,937 km / h relative to Earth).
See also
Web links
- NASA's Apollo 10 Mission Report (PDF, 323 pages, English; 10.1 MB)
- Apollo 10 in the NSSDCA Master Catalog (English)
- Apollo 10 Onboard Voice Transcription . NASA (PDF, 506 pages, English; 12.9 MB)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Interview with astronaut Gene Cernan
- ↑ Astronomers Might Have Found Apollo 10's “Snoopy” Module . Accessed February 15, 2020
- ↑ Apollo 10 was Moon Landing Rehearsal, EFT-1 Preps for Trips Beyond . NASA, June 3, 2014, accessed on May 6, 2020: "Apollo 10 set the record for the highest velocity attained to date by a piloted vehicle at 24.791 mph during the return from the moon."
- ^ Richard W. Orloff, David M. Harland: Apollo: The Definitive Sourcebook . Springer Science & Business Media, 2006, p. 264 ( limited preview in Google Book Search): "... the Apollo 10 mission report states the maximum speed at reentry was 36,397 ft per second, or 24,816 statute miles per hour."
- ↑ (Apollo) Entry, Splashdown, and Recovery . NASA, accessed May 6, 2020.
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