Made in 1969 by NASA, narrated by John Flynn and directed by Charles Gallagher, APOLLO 10: GREEN LIGHT FOR A LUNAR LANDING presents highlights of the lunar orbital mission, including the unlocking and descent of the lunar module to within ten miles of the moon’s surface. This was second lunar orbital mission and the last before the Apollo 11 landing, and was made by astronauts Thomas P. Stafford, John W. Young and

Eugene A. Cernan. Mission goals included undocking and descent of the lunar module within ten miles of the lunar surface. The film ends with shots of Apollo 11’s Saturn V sitting on the launch pad.

The film features a soundtrack by Walter (aka Wendy) Carlos and the Cleveland Orchestra.

Apollo 10 was the fourth manned mission in the United States Apollo space program, and the second (after Apollo 8) to orbit the Moon. Launched on May 18, 1969, it was the F mission: a “dress rehearsal” for the first Moon landing, testing all of the components and procedures, just short of actually landing. The Lunar Module (LM) came to within 8.4 nautical miles (15.6 km) of the lunar surface, the point where the powered descent to the lunar surface would begin.[2] Its success enabled the first landing to be attempted on Apollo 11 in July, 1969.

According to the 2002 Guinness World Records, Apollo 10 set the record for the highest speed attained by a manned vehicle at 39,897 km/h (11.08 km/s or 24,791 mph) during the return from the Moon on May 26, 1969.

Due to the use of their names as call signs, the Peanuts characters Charlie Brown and Snoopy became semi-official mascots for the mission. Peanuts creator Charles Schulz also drew some special mission-related artwork for NASA.

On May 22, 1969 at 20:35:02 UTC, a 27.4 second LM descent propulsion system burn inserted the LM into a descent orbit of 60.9 by 8.5 nautical miles (112.8 by 15.7 km) so that the resulting lowest point in the orbit occurred about 15° from lunar landing site 2 (the Apollo 11 landing site). The lowest measured point in the trajectory was 47,400 feet (14.4 km) above the lunar surface at 21:29:43 UTC.

After reaching lunar orbit three days later, Young remained in the Command Module (CM) Charlie Brown while Stafford and Cernan entered the LM Snoopy and flew it separately. The LM crew performed the descent orbit insertion maneuver by firing their descent engine, and tested their craft’s landing radar as they approached the 50,000-foot (15,000-meter) altitude where powered descent would begin on Apollo 11. They surveyed the landing site in the Sea of Tranquility, then separated the descent stage and fired the ascent engine to return to Charlie Brown.

Upon separation of the descent stage and ascent engine ignition, the Lunar Module began to roll violently due to the crew accidentally duplicating commands into the flight computer which took the LM out of abort mode, the correct configuration for this maneuver.] The live network broadcasts caught Cernan and Stafford uttering several expletives before regaining control of the LM. Cernan has said he observed the horizon spinning eight times over, indicating eight rolls of the spacecraft under ascent engine power. While the incident was downplayed by NASA, the roll was just several revolutions from being unrecoverable, which would have resulted in the LM crashing into the lunar surface.[15]

Splashdown occurred in the Pacific Ocean on May 26, 1969, at 16:52:23 UTC, approximately 400 nautical miles (740 km) east of American Samoa. The astronauts were recovered by the USS Princeton, and subsequently flown to Pago Pago International Airport in Tafuna for a greeting reception, before being flown on a C-141 cargo plane to Honolulu.

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This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD and 2k. For more information visit http://www.PeriscopeFilm.com