Apollo 10 rolls out of the massive Vehicle Assembly Building, Kennedy Space Center. (March 11, 1969; NASA) |
Eugene Cernan, John Young and Thomas Stafford. |
Captain Cernan notes that "Apollo 10 would be a full-dress rehearsal and do
everything but touch down on the lunar surface. Deke (Slayton) gave Neil
Armstrong's crew the historic assignment of tackling the first landing attempt,
with the understanding that it just might not happen that way. If the command
spacecraft or the lunar module didn't work well enough on Apollo 10, the
schedule could slip again for further testing by Apollo 11. Then Apollo 12, or
perhaps even Apollo 13, would get the first crack at the landing. Nothing was
certain at this point, except Apollo 10 wouldn't be bringing home any Moon
rocks. Looking back from today's vantage point, it was a good decision. Instead
of being disappointed, Tom (Stafford), John (Young) and I eagerly embraced our
new roles as lunar pathfinders."
Captain Cernan and Snoopy (courtesy Charles M. Schulz Museum and Research Center). |
As recalls in his best-selling book, "The Last Man on the Moon", Gene Cernan says " The image-conscious NASA public relations people who felt that "Gumdrop" and "Spider" weren't really serious enough names for the historic value of Apollo 9 were even more underwhelmed when we obtained permission from Peanuts cartoonist Charles Schulz to christen the CM "Charlie Brown" and call the LM "Snoopy". The PR-types lost this one big-time, for everybody on the planet knew the klutzy kid and his adventuresome beagle, and the names were embraced in a public relations bonanza. The intrepid, bubble-headed Snoopy, flying his doghouse to the Moon with a red scarf flapping at his neck, became a symbol of excellence, and before the hoopla quieted, that little dog's image was on decals, posters, dolls, kits, sweatshirts and buttons everywhere. The program had never seen anything like it."
Apollo 10 Command Module, "Charlie Brown" above the Moon. |
THE MISSION: NASA's account of the Apollo 10 misson.
"Many people have asked me over the years if I was disappointed that Apollo 10
did not make the first Moon landing," observes Captain Cernan. "How could we
have come so close and not actually taken those first steps. Would I liked to
have taken a shot at it? You bet I would. However, we all believed in the
importance of our mission because we knew Apollo 11 was going to need every
scrap of information we could gather if it was to have a successful flight of
its own.
"Really, how could I be disappointed after riding the Saturn V rocket, the
mightiest missle ever built, into orbit and then a quarter-million-miles from
Earth, seeing unbelievable sights, hanging around the Moon for three days,
descending to within 47,000 feet of the lunar surface, flying back to my home
planet and making a super high-speed reentry in a fireball to land in the
Pacific? Anyway, I had an idea--- I planned to go back."
Captain Cernan was right. On Apollo 17, he became the Last Man on the Moon. In fact, as authors French and Burgess note, "All three of the Apollo 10 crew members would fly Apollo missions again". They add that "Tom Stafford considers Apollo 10 his greatest contribution to the space program. As Buzz Aldrin declares, because of the Apollo 10 mission 'the door was wide open for Apollo 11'"
WATCH: Apollo 10 launch here.
SEE: What it's like to experience "zero gravity"
EXPERIENCE: What Capt. Cernan saw above the moon here.
THE FUTURE: See video of Capt. Cernan talking about returning to the moon here.
See the Apollo 10 Command Module at the Science Museum in London.