18th, 1969, we were almost

ready. man had orbited the moon flown r earth orbit once.landing c butldommit man to a lunar landing, there were still a number of things to be worked ois w the mission of apoo ten, in the words of its commander thomas stafford, to sort out all the unknowns and pave the way for a lunar

landing. it was 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 youngl5 had been on germany three and germany ten. face problems on apollo ten, problems that would be solved fool most be minor, but they would be lved. and staffordou, cernan, they brought to their mission dedication, responsibility,ve and through the means of color television. they took us wi played their part in man's greatest adv we are go for a mission to the moon at this time.

ey are go we're coming up in the 22nd mark minus 20 seconds and counting 17 seconds and counting guidance internal 15, 14, 13, 12, 11, ten, nine. we have ignitioneq engines on five, four, three, two, all engines running. once commenced liftoff. we have liftoff 49 minutes past the hour. ■ç■íso special right there, rog. good ignition on the second

stage. and that's blazing. waquen, 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 earth after. the checkout in orbit. it was time for trl i trans lunar injection when burof the s4b engine to send apollo ten to the moon. 7 minutes. clearly, roger,tand your go for ally four be looking at plan. that on people. all right, here we go. we can burn it got out apollo ten a burn. was on its way to the moon. now the command and service module separated the s4b and turned around to dock with the lunar module.

for the first of many thomas stafford turned on the small high resolution color televisionand ared 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. s ke a real stable earth. we feel you close. and finally. there, dr. fargo. roger, i again. houston, you're looking good. we c sngs at a rendezvous when it looks like you get that right out of capturjennifer? yes, roger.

slap snap. and we're there. got to grace. 8droger astronauts, aka charlie. gene we can rank three day doing when the during the docking, apollo tenncouered its first problem. the mylar containing the insulation on thecrafhad broken releasing a snowstorm of fiberglass in to have a heck of a cleaning job here. they have separation. all of the seal, all of the valve is really a heck of a mesd fixed. of the s4b and got our first live color pictures of the blue pl earth. charlie, this is it. it' hard. and describe your considerable personal -- gucasee the polar cn incredible.

it all here saying its colors are really beautiful. that' great. and the plaque is black. but you ever cld 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 b to control the temperature of the space craft. they performed ateady rotation. yeah, sounds like were 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 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 r you have your choice.

if you don't like things right far enough to go upside down, i just do whatever he says. roger, down here. okay, we got one in each direction. that's the onlyay to. farther and farther from earth stafford, young and cernan flew their wingless flight. now off the rotating home planet. they a night became only a progression of minutes as the acecft rotated at three revolutions an hour for about to finish. but i am still trying to. we're going to strike oughout t. we should be around the moon. roger. reality,eal eyeball hands. tehran trace up being flipped four and a half. en hston. sounds like we're ready for a

naval drill in the flight dd hey for today. ollo ten thomas stafford. you should concentrate on finishing things that you have already started. today's a will be a moderate. useo take inventory. john young you will have a day today. this will give you time to concentrate on the work aheadnjs and companion and dino you bre. give careful thought to your working and driving habits. ethi nice for your friend. the crew of apollo ten was ready for lunar orbit. checklists gone over clocks, computers, updated as t tnaorbit insertion burn neared. the men in missionontr concentrated on their display. isollo ten tried looking out as

far ascan tell, the top perch we film here fell apart but we'll take your word fort whatever 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 the behind moon out of contact with it. later, a second burn would make the orbit circular 60 miles ab 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 mannedllowed their fl, 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 scarred lunar landscape. see the here as the first real thing positive of th i see that. i recognize that boy, it really stands out. stafford, young,nan, a quarter of a million miles from 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 rrow down at 50,000 feet over. py that is going to happen. hello used to apollo ten. we've got a beautiful view of the earth here that is absolutely. 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 youre. 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 called they checked out snoopy for the last time. one of i involved entering the tunnel, connecting snoopy and charlie brown t sure that the spacecraft patches did not but again. over.not give a simple command right. you understand, colonel? why not? man. this was a real. 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

uncking. but for apollo 11 it would be fixed. okay, got it. brown and slope. s are going over the hill here. go for undock and we'll figure ran out of that. oh r roger. the undocking took place theoo when contact was reestablished snoopy andharown were ready for the separation hn young and charliescent the brown was you never know how gi. twitter ain't nobody there but one guy didn't have don't know how small it looks when you're as fwa as we are. they were below the radar

transp ldee the vhf range. you ever okay? my transponder is on transponder two is on and test switcheopera. i certainly get the radar signal and i saw it all and electronic the command module was not functioning. without it, e rendezvous and no low orbit descent in the lunar module to the moon. in mission control, and in the two spacecraft switch positions and procedures wereecheed for the descent and subsequent rendezvous were the heart of the en. mission from mission control. one last ditch instruction was set up. roger how abtr recycle the power switch? charlie brown in t command module. on again. the switch off, hey, that you guys advised all

switched on. first of all, buddy, buddy know ou that a little thing, a stuck switch. butor 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. and don't accept anything. i update. charlie brown,oust, 45 seconds to blow out your cell. go for dlr deo. i decent orbit insertion would meegrees from landing site to the primary site for apollo 11 according to the inexorable laws ofal

mechanics, this burn of the lunar module descent engine would putta and snoopy less than ten miles above the site. once more in mission control. they waited for word the moon at the telegraph. they're down there above the rock i about the boulders been right now eight miles above the surface, 35,000 feet over the an hills. then a communications problem. snoy was 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 the freeway roger fantastic journey fantastic ride. charlie bear that's fantastic r.

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. yes the approach look flusheful. photos show the f estimate, 25 to 30% say so clear. yes. so if the lem has enou u over time, at least from what we can cfl phase, it should probably a

problem or it got down to the wrong area. you don'a h'rcraft is going to have to shove offff. now it was time to begin the 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 was ready for to performd on the next orbit. once more,y battered face of the moon. charlie, we just saw earthrise s t to be magnificent. charlie i don't know how the big hings, but if his view is any better than ours, it's got to be fantastic.

before the actual rendezvous, burns to p module's ascent aid would have to be separated from thestage. but during the separation, something went wrong. around him. to roll rly that's the last. editor's and move houston. we're going to close the game malarkey now something went wild set we didn't lock and we're going to head to the bottom li 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 ofr. but for a few seconds they didn't know that for apollo 11, it would be found and corrected.

now the rendezvous sequence came step by step. it was old hat for the veteran i flown five rendezvous cernan and young three. so snoopy rose up from the moon standbyirst guy there is about five feet. so what could beautiful. hello? yes, griffin, throw it down to us and each other. roger that. we had him downere,ut the day was not over yet. they still had to preparehe stage and command module for. their final separation. oh, we're all going module. the tomahawk drop and we're about to do it. andg thfront there, when you give them the word word, we can go ahead and pa now.

charlie brown okay. i can countdown. we're allet go for 75 or oh my. oh warren are there or then they leave and it rained and maybe right into the sun. actually like so a lot of people did a good job. and at the end vehicle so far, that little was a real winner. we concur. and that charlie brown is not smart either. the next day, apollo ten stayed in orbit moon, the orbital deviations ofpollo ten were being determined with greater and, greater p on board. there was more photography, more mark tracking and navigation. with each revolution, the figuwed wn

closer and in preparation for the arriva of apollo 11,oe, there's a very interesting looking of things that sort of look like volcanoes. there's one on the backside of those. if it was a different esthetic, you've got a pushover for. but now it was time to h home to earth trends. earth injection, the one burn of the mission that absolutely to work the burn that would push apollo ten out of its lunar t.everything looks good for ceo rovi here on the way home

make again this most critical of all maneuvers would take place behind the moon cut off from earth we contact. e earth we're glad to have you on the way backthe last time apollo ten watched the sapphire c stark lunar horizon. and they had throughout the mission stafford, young and cehared with us the sights and feelings of their voyage through color television. you guys. are really hauling the mail out of thau tter believe we're climbing straight. the fantastic fht is like we were struck straight up to the center, the moon. it's you're going about 6000 feet a second. led earth where they decided

to perform one more test, a test riginal objective of the mission, but a test that would solve the problem that had baffled space engineers for years from where they finally up with idea of using treasure and freshly shaved cream to amazing them. that's what the species does for you. i tell you charlie. that's one of the most refreshing things that's happened in the last couple days. that was great. you guys really look good. down from the moon toward the coast of earth,ten spit on its incandescent path toward its dawn rendezvous at sea. wow. problems had been met, faced and

solvedormiion of apollo to sort out the and pave way. but as the men of apollo ten were reunited with their families and friends,■4 attentin already turning elsewhere apollo 11 had been rolled out to its had entered orbit.fore about the moon. now it stood pointed toward a distant sea. how much we're going to progress in the fut youe imagination. if we learned our energies and our perspectives