Apollo 10 Dress Rehearsal Paved Way for Moon Landing

6/5/2019 A Smithsonian Curator Reflects on Apollo 10, the Mission That Made Landing on the Moon Possible | Science
Landing on the Moon Possible | Science | Smithsonian
MAY 17, 2019 Follow @jaywbennett
A Smithsonian Curator Reflects on Apollo

10, the Mission That Made Landing on the
Moon Possible
|
Science
“I keep telling Neil Armstrong that we painted that white line in the sky
all the way to the moon down to 47,000 feet so he wouldn't get lost,
and all he had to do was land. Made it sort of easy for him.”
So said Eugene Cernan, the last human to set foot on the moon, and
before that, the lunar module pilot of Apollo 10. Along with commander
Thomas Sta ord and command module pilot John Young, Cernan
crewed the critical dress rehearsal, the mission to do “everything but
land.”
Apollo 10 will forever serve as the crux between two of the most
extraordinary accomplishments in human history: the rst ight to the
moon on Apollo 8, and of course, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin’s
rst steps on the lunar surface during Apollo 11. The mission was the
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/smithsonian-curator-reflects-apollo-10-mission-made-landing-moon-possible-180972216/ 1/9
6/5/2019 A Smithsonian Curator Reflects on Apollo 10, the Mission That Made Landing on the Moon Possible | Science | Smithsonian
last chance to test the critical hardware and software that would take
people to the moon, including the all-important lunar module, which
was making its rst trip to lunar orbit. On the next, it would land.
Fifty years after the May 18, 1969 launch of Apollo 10—the mission that
is often said to have taken people farther from Earth than ever before or
since—we can gain a new perspective on the lunar ight’s place in
history. Smithsonian spoke with Michael Neufeld, senior curator of the
space history department at the National Air and Space Museum, to talk
about Apollo 10’s role in the program that launched the rst ights to
another world.
Apollo 10 came right in the heart of the Apollo program, as NASA was
gearing up for the rst lunar landing attempt. What had happened
immediately before, on Apollo 9?
The fundamental purpose of Apollo 9 was to test out the lunar module.
It was the rst time humans ew it. But also the mission was an Earth-
orbit rehearsal for the lunar landing. They simulated in Earth orbit as
best they could the whole lunar landing and return sequence. So that
was a really important test.
Another thing that happened on Apollo 9 that’s interesting is that it's

the only time before Armstrong stepped down on the moon that they
had someone go outside on the porch of the lunar module with the
portable life support system backpack. [Russell “Rusty”] Schweickart
got outside and demonstrated that the backpack worked.
Apollo 10 lunar module pilot Gene Cernan at an April 26, 1969 press
conference with a puppet of Snoopy, which along with Charlie Brown from
the comic Peanuts, became a mascot for the mission. (NASA)
When they ew to the moon on Apollo 10, it was the rst time the lunar
module (LM) would make the trip to lunar orbit. Were there any
remaining questions about how the LM would perform once they
brought it all the way to the moon?
I don't think they were too concerned about the environment. The LM
ew successfully once with humans, and once on Apollo 5 without
humans. But it was still a very new vehicle, so they did not want to
commit to a lunar landing on the very next mission.
Apollo 10's purpose was to do a full dress rehearsal of the lunar landing,
so they e ectively carried out a practice run on the Sea of Tranquility
landing site, including photographing the landmarks, seeing when the
various craters came up, carrying out every maneuver short of ring
the descent engine for the descent to the lunar surface.
What did they learn on this mission? Was there anything that surprised
them, or that they were glad they gured out on this dress rehearsal
mission?
There was a problem at the point. Sta ord and Cernan descended,
ultimately, to 47,000 feet. Then they were to reorient the spacecraft,
and carry out, essentially, a practice of aborting descent, and re the
ascent stage to put themselves back on a trajectory to rendezvous with
the Command and Service modules.
Something went wrong. Their switch settings were wrong. The crew
made a mistake and the lunar module went on a wild gyration, rolling
around and ipping around, and it was a dangerous moment. Sta ord
regained control, but that was kind of a scary moment. You could hear
—and I heard it watching on TV—Eugene Cernan say, "son of a bitch."
Some religious groups complained of bad language on the radio.
Sta ord had to manually bring it back onto the correct attitude. This
took place after the ignition of the ascent engine. They were certainly
out of control there for a couple seconds until Sta ord got it pointed
back in the right direction for ascent.
Apollo 10 Earthrise
It sounds like it was a pretty close call, and they could have crashed into
the moon. What would the impact on the Apollo program have been if
Apollo 10 ended in such a catastrophic failure?
It would have been a huge setback. The rst thing would have been to
gure out what the hell happened. I guess they would have had audio
from the crew as they struggled to try to regain control.
Any failure, on any of those missions, 8, 9 or 10, especially a fatal one,

would have dramatically set back the moon landing. Apollo 11 would not
have been the moon landing mission. I think the scenario you would be
likely to see, especially if the crew was lost, would be a long delay. Then
Apollo 11 would have own the practice mission over again, and Apollo
12 would have been the landing. Whether that could've been done in
1969 is a totally speculative.
But the thing is that this was, all in all, except for this one incident, a
totally successful mission. The overall lesson of Apollo 10 was:
Everything's ready to go.
The ascent stage of the Apollo 10 lunar module coming in to dock with the
command module, after having descended to 47,000 feet above the surface
and jettisoning the descent stage. (NASA)
Did they think at all about landing during Apollo 10? Was that ever on
the drawing board, or was it never even a consideration?
I'm sure astronauts and others talked about it. I remember at the time
the media talked about it. Apparently, the LM was too heavy, and they
hadn't fully fueled the ascent stage. The New York Times story that just
ran about Apollo 10 says Cernan thought maybe they intentionally
didn't give them enough ascent propellant, so that they couldn't even
contemplate landing on the moon.
But given how dependent they were on ground control, it's just really
hard to see how they could ever possibly have just said, "Oh, we're
going to do it anyway," and landed on the moon. It might've been
possible to land on Apollo 10, but at the time, NASA had done very few
missions. If NASA was not so strongly motivated by the 1969 goal, the
challenge from John F. Kennedy, it might have done extra practice
missions. As far as Houston and the NASA leadership were concerned,
they did essentially the minimum number of missions that they could
imagine to get to a lunar landing.
It is commonly said that Apollo 10 holds a few signi cant records. One
is that, given the position of the moon during the mission, the Apollo 10
crew has been farther away from Earth than any other humans. And the
other is that during their return to Earth they went faster than any
other humans in a vehicle. Do you know if those are o
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/smithsonian-curator-reflects-apollo-10-mission-made-landing-moon-possible-180972216/
cial records? 7/9
I've heard that, and the two make sense together. If the moon was at
apogee, its most distant point from Earth, during that mission, then
the crew would have own farther away than any other missions. And if
the moon was at apogee, the fall back to Earth would have been a little
bit faster, a couple hundred miles an hour.
The crew of Apollo 10, from left to right: lunar module pilot Eugene A.
Cernan, commander Thomas P. Sta ord, and command module pilot John
W. Young. (NASA)
Two of the crew members on Apollo 10 actually ended up going back

and walking on the moon, John Young and Eugene Cernan
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/smithsonian-curator-reflects-apollo-10-mission-made-landing-moon-possible-180972216/ on Apollo 16 8/9
and 17, respectively. How many people have own to the moon twice?
It's a very select group. There are actually three people who went to the
moon twice. Jim Lovell was the other one, on Apollo 8 and 13, but of
course his landing was canceled on 13. So, just those three guys, and it's
a very select club already. There are only 24 astronauts who went to the
moon, 12 of them walked, and only 3 went back to the moon twice. And
Young and Cernan are the only two who orbited and landed.
They were very good and competent astronauts; that's why they were
picked as commanders. But they also were lucky.
The Apollo program at large, of course, involves so many di erent

factors, so many di erent missions going back through the legacies of
Gemini and Mercury. How does Apollo 10 t into that big picture?
Apollo 10 was the mission that proved that the system was ready to
land on the moon. It made Apollo 11 possible. It demonstrated that the
command and service modules, the tracking system, the mission
control, was ready to attempt a landing. So, it made possible Apollo 11's
landing on the moon.
Viewed using Just Read

Apollo 10 Dress Rehearsal Paved Way for Moon Landing

Hochgeladen von

Dokumentinformationen

Originalbeschreibung:

Originaltitel

Copyright

Verfügbare Formate

Dieses Dokument teilen

Dokument teilen oder einbetten

Freigabeoptionen

Stufen Sie dieses Dokument als nützlich ein?

Sind diese Inhalte unangemessen?

Copyright:

Verfügbare Formate

Apollo 10 Dress Rehearsal Paved Way for Moon Landing

Hochgeladen von

Copyright:

Verfügbare Formate

6/5/2019 A Smithsonian Curator Reflects on Apollo 10, the Mission That Made Landing on the Moon Possible | Science

Landing on the Moon Possible | Science | Smithsonian

MAY 17, 2019 Follow @jaywbennett

A Smithsonian Curator Reflects on Apollo

Another thing that happened on Apollo 9 that’s interesting is that it's

Any failure, on any of those missions, 8, 9 or 10, especially a fatal one,

Two of the crew members on Apollo 10 actually ended up going back

The Apollo program at large, of course, involves so many di erent

Viewed using Just Read

Das könnte Ihnen auch gefallen