![IMAGE: The Apollo 10 Mission](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/eot2008/20081005222146im_/http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/history/apollo/images/apollo10hdr.gif)
This spacecraft was the
second Apollo mission to orbit the Moon, and the first to travel
to the Moon with the full Apollo spacecraft, consisting of the
Command and Service Module, named "Charlie Brown," and
the Lunar Module, named "Snoopy." The primary objectives
of the mission were to demonstrate crew, space vehicle and mission
support facilities during a human lunar mission and to evaluate
Lunar Module performance in cislunar and lunar environment. The
mission was a full "dry run" for the Apollo 11 mission,
in which all operations except the actual lunar landing were performed.
On May 22, Thomas Stafford
and Eugene Cernan entered the Lunar Module and fired the Service
Module reaction control thrusters to separate the Lunar Module
from the Command Module. The Lunar Module was put into an orbit
to allow low-altitude passes over the lunar surface, the closest
approach bringing it to within 8.9 kilometers (5.5 miles) of the
Moon. All systems on the Lunar Module were tested during the separation
including communications, propulsion, attitude control and radar.
The Lunar Module and Command Module rendezvous and redocking occurred
8 hours after separation on May 23. Thirty-one lunar orbits were
achieved.
All systems on both spacecraft
functioned nominally, the only exception being an anomaly in the
automatic abort guidance system aboard the Lunar Module. In addition
to extensive photography of the lunar surface from both the Lunar
Module and Command Module, television images were taken and transmitted
to Earth. The Apollo 10 Command Module "Charlie Brown"
is on display at the Science Museum, London, England. |