Launch from Cape Canaveral (
KSC);
landing east of Samoa Islands in the Pacific Ocean.
Apollo 10 was the
final dress rehearsal for the moon landing and the second manned lunar orbital
mission, but first lunar orbital mission with the complete spacecraft
(including the lunar module).
Shortly after leaving the low Earth
orbit, the command/service module separated from the S-IVB stage, turned
around, and docked its nose to the top of the lunar module still nestled in the
S-IVB. The
CSM/
LM stack then separated from the S-IVB for the trip to
the Moon.
On May 22, 1969 the spacecraft were separated. Spacecraft and
the
LM, named
Snoopy, with Thomas
Stafford and Eugene
Cernan onboard was inserted into a descent orbit, John
Young
remained alone in his command module "Charlie Brown". The
LM was taken
within 15,243 km of the lunar surface, checking out the
LMs radar and
ascent engine and several more. The lunar module returned to dock successfully
with the
CSM following the eight hour separation, and the
LM crew returned
to the
CSM. The
LM ascent stage
was jettisoned. During leaving the moon orbit the
LM began to reel
because of technical problems (incorrect switch setting was the reason). 31
lunar orbits were performed. Apollo 10 also added another first - broadcasting
live color TV from space (19 different broadcasts were performed).
The
splashdown was 5,4 kilometers from the recovery ship
USS
Princeton.
