APOLLO 10 NEARLY CRASHES ON MOON

From the Discovery Channel series "Rocket Science": Gene Cernan recalls a little-reported near-calamity during the lunar landing rehearsal. (Full series available at www.foolishearthling.com)

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• Space
• APOLLO
• NASA
• Cernan
• moon
• Armstrong
• Tranquility
• Space Race
• landing radar
• hero
• adventure
• Apollo Program
• Crash
• Accident

[lcs1956]

Completely bogus that they were within two seconds of crashing. The tumbling for 15 seconds could not have changed their orbit.

[sciencehighway]

@lcs1956 And were they in orbit at the time your comment might have merit, but this was a landing approach, the final stage in the Apollo 10 'dress rehearsal'. Please read Gene Cernan's autobiography, Andrew Chaikin's terrific history or any of several hundred other accounts, all of which tell this harrowing story far better than I have here.

[gnark1ll1us]

I love Tom Stafford on the radio in the Apollo films.

He always sounds genuinely amazed and glad to be there.

Long live Stafford and all the Apollo heroes.

[yourmajezty]

fake

[NASAvsPETE1]

Fantastic all above a plaster of Paris model... Love it !

[RobloxTitanicMan2]

HOLY CRAP

[27132lower]

any apollo 10 footage is gratefully accepted

[Tweekerhead]

Apollo 10 was not 2 seconds from crashing into the lunar surface, it was calculated that if the trajectory of the A11-LM(Snoopy) had continued another two seconds it would've been impossible for the crew to correct trajectory to the inevitable impact.

These badasses had the biggest friggin balls in the world, those sonza' bitches were up there.

.

I still can't believe there was a cockpit big enough that could fit Cernan's balls.

[observer9670]

I remember at the time people were wondering "Why didn't THEY land, they were so close." But the LM on Apollo 10 was considered too heavy by NASA for an actual landing. The Grumman people were still stripping away the LM for Apollo 11 to get its weight to an acceptable level for a landing. But NASA thought the distance from the surface that Snoopy flew was far enough away that lunar gravity wouldn't be as much of a factor.

[Omar123eee]

Rhiga yu nub

[lcs1956]

@sciencehighway They WERE in orbit. They were not flying the Apollo 11 descent profile with descent engine firing. Their orbit had a low point of 50000 ft which they were approaching when they separated from the descent stage. The RCS jet firings caused tumbling, which cannot take you out of orbit.

[WELLBRAN]

Tumbling around and managed to gain control in orbit around the moon and found the command module as planned?.....NO seconds from crashing...NO thats absurd