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 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 der omas stafford had flown on germany six and nine

lunar module pil 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 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 co guidance internal 15, 14, 1 11, ten, nine. we have ignition sequence start

engines on five, four, three, two, all engines running. ce commenced liftoff. we have liftoff 49 nu the hour. special right there, roger. ignition on the second stage. and that's blazing. was quite a sequence, just like old times. beautiful out there. you got ecstatic. and this is the greatest early apollo ten was headed for its initial orb around the

earth after. e orbi 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. l we go. we can burn it got out apollo ten with a perfect burn. was on its way to the moon. mole 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. o had made and we're makingh

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. roger astronauts, aka charlie. gene we can rank three day numbers on the lam, right? docking when the during the doing, apollo ten encountered

its first problem. the mylar containing the insulation on the spacecraft had broken releasing a snowstorm of 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 capn incredible. we see it all here saying its colors are really beautiful. that's great. and theque is black. but you ever could conceive is a setting for all this, right. so stafford young and cernan begaeit away from

earth, their speed, continually dropping at'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 ctially check the trajectory, the spacecraft, the command module ca sarlie br, snoopy. it conversation and it was time for showing the people home on the eart 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 di that's the only way to. farther and farther from earth

stafford, yound flew their wingless flight. now off the rotating home pl 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 aal apollo ten houston. sounds like we're r naval drill in the flight deck. and here is your horoscope ready for today. apollo ten thomas stafford. you should concentrate on finishthu ha 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 fela'll take your word for it for whatever it's there plus 60 miles an houreed'm there and in hou 2 along with everybody is has got

the okayll s 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 above the moon. for aos acquisition of 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 ame moon. the electronic sensors of miss fimaed spaceflight network followed their flight,

path information vitalir to the success ofhe 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 stds out. afford, young, cernan, a quarter of a million miles from earth, 60 miles above our desolatelite well, that's this is really a ru planet. but also looking at. it, the erosion in some of the valleys, we could see down here, thats g'g to be a real kick tomorrow down at 50,000 feet ovso we copy that is going to

happen. hello used to apollo ten. ,'ea earth here that is absolutely fantastic. module pilot, gene cernan, to crawl into the l m called snoopy to check it out for the next day's descent. his evaluation, and i personally hope we can give you a better report tomorrow. you bet your life. you watch snoopy. well, tonight and make himere aa walk and let him stretch his legs in theorning. 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 aint 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 a 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 a slope. 3 minutes are going over the hill here. go for undock and we'll figure that.

oh roger roger. the ing ok 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 they get. twitter ain't nobody there but guy didn't have don't know looks when you're as far away as we they were below the radar transponder or like the vhf range. you ever okay? my transponder is onns two is on and test switches and operate. i certainly get the radar signal and i saw it all the

command module was not tioning. without it, there would be no rendezvous and no low orbit deent in the lunar module to the moon. in mis cin the two spacecraft switch positions and procur rechecked for the descent and subsequent rendezvous were the hehe 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. also scenarios and we'll see if

asked ab6 hours. i tim 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 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. more in mission control. they waited for word the moon at ey'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 released. now flash through charlie brown. fellow is serious and it is movinght so go ahead way is going de 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 iw

and that satellite are on oura k there. that guy worked on heroic a such a type of something heralds off then of the key aspects of the mission thomas staddescbes the e 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 yes. so if the lem has enough up over time, at least from what we cfl phase, it should probably a problemowto the wrong area. you don't have a hovercraft is going to have to shove off off. now it was time to bin this firw orbit. they would make the initial to

snoopy and charlie brown into the proper phase retihe coming maneuvers. okay, we're burning 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 to fantastic. before the actual rendezvous, burns took place, the lunar module's ascent aid would have to be separated he descent stage. but during the separ something went wrong.

snoopy began to roll rapidly out of around him. that's the last. 's and move houston. we're going to close the game malarkey now somethiin so and 'e 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 u system malfunction stafford and cernan had it under in thomas stafford and gene cernan were never in any danger. but for a few seconds they didn't knowhat for apollo 11, it would be found and corrected. now the rend seqezvonce 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 fr tp" to join charlie brown and go,

we're about ready to dock. dby 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. ad 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 and standing the front there, when you give them the word now. charlie brown okay. i can countdown. we set to go for 75 or oh . oh warren arehere 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. concur. and that charlie brown is not smar either. the next day, ol around moon, te orbitavi apollo ten were being determined with greater and, greater precision on board. there was more photography, more landmark tracking and navigation. with each revolution, efigures n closer and in preparation for the arrival of apollo 11, joe, there's a very interesting looking of things of look like volcanoes. 's e on the backside of

those. if it was a different esthetic, you've g pushover f.but now it e to earth trends. earth injection, the one burn of the mission that absolutely to work the burn that would push orbit. ten out of it everything looks good for ceo roger virgo here on the way home make again this most criticalfae 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 tesat would solve the problem that had baffled space engineers for years w finally up with the idea of using treasure and freshly shaved cream to

amazing them. absolutely. that's what the species does for i tell you charlie. that's one of the most refreshing things 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 s 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 waybut as the men of an

were reunited with their families and friends, attention already turning apollo 11 had been rolled out to its padven before apollo had entered orbit. now it stood pointed toward a distan sea. how much we're goio future andr imagination. if we learned our energies and gave our perspectives■s■■x■z■y'r

next speaker. i want to make sure they have their full allotted