Apollo 10 mission to the Space

The Saturn V launched on 18 May 1969 16:49 UTC from the Kennedy Space Center, Florida. As with Apollo 8 was first triggered an orbit. After two orbits, the third stage of the Saturn rocket was fired a second time to bring the Apollo spacecraft on the way to the moon.In the lunar orbit

LEM on the moon by Apollo 10After reaching orbit the moon, all maneuvers were carried out, as they were planned for the actual landing of Apollo 11. In about 110 km above the lunar surface, the spacecraft (CSM Command / Service Module) from the Lunar Module (LEM, for Lunar Excursion Module) separately. It began the descent of the LEM, which came to the surface at about 14 km near. That was the lowest level at which was a direct ascent possible. In 15 km altitude, the descent stage are blown off to begin the re-emergence. This was achieved only after repeated tripping. Right after that failed, the computer control of the attitude control system, and the module began to spin on. A required switching operation was not recorded in the checklist and therefore was not performed.Thus, two separate programs conflicting commands delivered to the control nozzles. Stafford had to shut down the computer control and restore the correct position on the manual control. Even the command to fire the main engine in the ascent engine failed to start. In contrast, the rendezvous and docking with the CSM reach properly. After the transfer of the astronauts ascent engine was fired again and brought the ascent stage into a solar orbit in which it resides to this day, during the first descent stage remained in lunar orbit and later crashed at an unknown location.LandingDuring re-entry on 26 Rally to the landing capsule a speed of 39,897 km / h. This is still the fastest speed ever achieved by humans. Apollo 10 splashed down at 16:52 UT safe in the Pacific Ocean and was retrieved from the aircraft carrier USS Princeton. 19 TV shows for the first time in color, were transmitted to Earth during the mission.The Apollo landing capsule is now on display at the Science Museum in London. It is, except for minor equipment, the only Apollo flight hardware outside of the United States.