Star Points for May 2009 by Curtis Roelle Anniversary of the Moon Landing Dress Rehearsal Forty years ago this nation was eagerly watching as final preparations were being made for the first manned lunar landing. The last mission before the landing itself was to be a dress rehearsal for the big event. Apollo 10 would travel from the earth to swoop down within only 10 miles of the moon's dusty surface. Only eight years had passed since America launched its first astronaut into space in May, 1961. Each mission from then on, six in project Mercury, ten in project Gemini, and four in project Apollo, including Apollo 10 – 20 manned flights in all -- were the preamble leading up to the eventual manned lunar landing. Only once had men previously traveled to the moon. Five months earlier Apollo 8 had made ten lunar orbits in a test of interplanetary navigation; this crew was the first to ride NASA's enormous Saturn V moon rocket. They had traveled to the moon and home in an Apollo command module (CM). Besides using a CM, Apollo 10 would be the first mission to test a lunar module (LM) moon landing vehicle beyond earth orbit. For such an important mission NASA selected an all-veteran crew for Apollo 10. Tom Stafford, commander, had previously flown on two Gemini missions only six months apart. John Young, CM pilot, had likewise flown on two Gemini missions. Gene Cernan, LM pilot, had performed a space walk on his Gemini mission. Apollo 10 lifted off on May 18. It took just 12 minutes for the Saturn V to reach orbit. During the three-day "coast" to the moon, the astronauts made several live television broadcasts using a new color camera developed for NASA by Westinghouse in Linthicum, Maryland. It was the first time color images had been beamed to earth from a manned space flight. Once in lunar orbit, Stafford and Cernan climbed into the LM and separated from the CM. Both modules had been given call signs by the astronauts based on characters from the "Peanuts" comic strip. The CM was called "Charlie Brown" and the LM was "Snoopy." Snoopy descended to within 50,000 feet of the lunar surface, enabling the astronauts to get a close-up look at the site where Neil Armstong and Buzz Aldrin would eventually become the first humans to land on the moon. The LM Snoopy had two parts, a descent stage and an ascent stage. The LM descent stage and its rocket engine were designed to get the LM to the moon's surface. The LM ascent stage with the crew compartment would be used to carry astronauts from the moon back to the orbiting CM. Although Snoopy didn't actually land, the descent stage was jettisoned before the rendezvous with Charlie Brown. When it came time to discard the descent stage, the LM unexpectedly started to gyrate wildly. Cernan spoke a few choice and colorful words into his mic as Stafford worked to right the craft. Eventually the descent stage was cut loose; and with Snoopy's systems checked out, the astronauts returned to Charlie Brown and spent another day in lunar orbit before heading back to Earth. Charlie Brown splashed down eight days after liftoff, on May 26, 1969. All three crew members would go on to fly aboard future Apollo missions. John Young commanded Apollo 16 to a successful landing in the moon's Descartes highlands. He later commanded two U.S. space shuttle missions, and remained an employee with NASA for 42 years, until his retirement in 2004. Gene Cernan commanded Apollo 17 to a landing in the Taurus-Littrow region, and remains the last human to leave boot prints in the lunar dust. Tom Stafford participated in the 1975 Apollo-Soyuz Test Project in earth orbit.