may 18th, 1969, we were almost

ready. 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 to a lunar landing, there were still a number of things to be worked out. this was the mission of apollo 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 young had been on germany three and germany ten.

they would face problems on apollo ten, problems that would be solved for apollo 11. most be minor, but they would be solved. and stafford young, cernan, they brought to their mission enthusiast awesome 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 are go we're coming up in the 22nd mark t minus 20 seconds and counting 17 seconds and counting guidance internal 15, 14, 13, 12, 11, ten, nine. we have ignition sequence start engines on five, four, three, two, all engines running. once commenced liftoff.

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 earth after. the checkout in orbit. it was time for trl i trans lunar injection when the burn of

the s4b engine to send apollo ten to the moon. 7 minutes. clearly, roger, stand 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 with a perfect burn. was on its way to the moon. now the command and service module separated from the s4b and turned around to dock with the lunar module. for the first of many times, thomas stafford turned on the small high resolution color television camera and shared 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. dan it's like a real stable earth. we feel you close. and finally. there, dr. fargo. roger, i again. houston, you're looking good. we can see the markings that a rendezvous when it looks like you get that right out of capture. jennifer? yes, roger. slap snap. and we're there. got to grace. roger astronauts, aka charlie. gene we can rank three day numbers on the lam, right? docking when the during the docking, apollo ten encountered its first problem. the mylar containing the insulation on the spacecraft had broken releasing a snowstorm of fiberglass in the zero gravity.

hey, we're going 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 mess up here for apollo 11, it would be fixed. then we watched as they pulled of the s4b and got our first 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 polar cap in incredible. we see it all here saying its colors are really beautiful. that's great. and the plaque is black. but you ever could 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 back. to control the temperature of

the space craft. they performed a slow, steady 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 for wonderful. 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 only way 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 spacecraft rotated at three revolutions an hour for about to finish. but i am still trying to. we're going to strike out throughout the world. we should be around the moon. roger. reality, real eyeball hands. tehran trace up being flipped four and a half. apollo ten houston. sounds like we're ready for a naval drill in the flight deck. and here is your horoscope ready for today. apollo ten thomas stafford. you should concentrate on finishing things that you have already started. today's a will be a moderate. use this time to take inventory. john young you will have a slow day today. this will give 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 on their display. 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 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 spacecraft into lunar orbit would take place behind moon out of contact with it. later, a second burn would make the orbit circular 60 miles above the 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 manned spaceflight network followed their flight, 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 fear up here as the first real thing positive of that. i see that. i recognize that boy, it really stands out. stafford, young, cernan, 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 tomorrow down at 50,000 feet over. so we copy that is going to happen. hello used to apollo ten.

we've got a beautiful view of the earth here that is absolutely fantastic. 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 your life. 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 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 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 undocking. but for apollo 11 it would be fixed. okay, got it. brown and slope. 3 minutes are going over the hill here. go for undock and we'll figure ran out of that. oh roger roger. the undocking took place behind the moon.

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. you ever okay? my transponder is on transponder two is on and test switches and operate. i certainly get the radar signal and i saw it all 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 spacecraft switch positions and procedures were rechecked for the descent and subsequent rendezvous were the heart of the apollo ten. mission from mission control. one last ditch instruction was set 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 all switched on. first of all, buddy, buddy know about that a little thing, a stuck switch. but for 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.

john. and don't accept anything. i update. charlie 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 the lunar module descent engine would put stafford cernan 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

ancient hills. then a communications problem. contact with snoopy 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 they really. 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 flushed full of front of the orbiter. photos show the full estimate, 25 to 30% say so clear. yes. so if the lem has enough up 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't have a hovercraft is going to have to shove off off. 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 the rendezvous sequence to performed on the next orbit. once more, they rounded the battered 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 view is any 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. but during the separation, something went wrong. snoopy began to roll rapidly out of around him. that's the last. editor's and move houston. we're going to close the game

malarkey now something went wild in so and we're all set we didn't lock and we're going to head to the bottom charlie brown 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 of danger. 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 crew in germany. stafford had flown five rendezvous cernan for and young three. so snoopy rose up from the moon to join charlie brown and go, we're about ready to dock. standby our first 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 down here, but the day was not over yet. they still had to prepare the stage and command module for. their final separation. oh, we're all going to command module. the tomahawk drop and we're about to do it. and standing the front there, when you give them the word word, we can go ahead and separate now. charlie brown okay. i can countdown. we're all set to 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 around moon, the orbital deviations of apollo ten were being determined with 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 and in preparation for the arrival of apollo 11, joe, 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 head 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 orbit. everything looks good for ceo roger virgo 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. roger that we are returning to the earth we're glad to have you on the way back then for the 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 were struck straight up to the 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 space engineers for years from where they finally up with the idea of using treasure and freshly shaved cream to amazing them. absolutely. 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, apollo ten spit on its incandescent path toward its dawn rendezvous at sea. wow. problems had been met, faced and 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 apollo

11 had been rolled out to its launch pad even before apollo had entered orbit. about the moon. now it stood pointed toward a distant sea. how much we're going to progress in the future and lift your imagination. if we learned our energies and gave our perspectivestoday's cll

of jim crow, charles hamilton houston and the to brown versus board of education. 1954. so today we'll talk a little bit about this major figure african-american history. charles