55 years ago, Apollo 10's crew turned the airwaves blue
- Reference: 1716300011
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2024/05/21/55_years_apollo_11/
- Source link:
The pace of the Apollo program is difficult for the Artemis generation to comprehend. Having flown a crew to lunar orbit on Apollo 8 at the end of 1968 and checked out the lunar module with Apollo 9 at the start of 1969, NASA was ready to take the next step with Apollo 10 and do almost everything except perform the touchdown.
The crew consisted of Gemini veterans Tom Stafford, Gene Cernan, and John Young. Cernan and Young would go on to land on the Moon in later Apollo missions, while Stafford's next (and last) spaceflight would be the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project of 1975.
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The launch of the Saturn V was relatively straightforward, although the so-called pogo motion was described by Cernan in his book [2]The Last Man on the Moon "as if the gods were mixing martinis."
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The pogo shaking continued throughout the launch. Cernan recalled: "The spacecraft was talking to us, and we didn't like what it had to say." A new vibration replaced it during the burn to send the spacecraft to the Moon. The shaking was so bad that Cernan feared that the mission might be aborted. The infamously foul-mouthed former astronaut wrote: "Quoth the Raven, no fucking way."
Having extracted the lunar module from the Saturn V, the Apollo stack slipped into lunar orbit 55 years ago on May 21, 1969. Stafford and Cernan piloted the Apollo lunar module to less than 47,000 feet above the surface a day later. "Much closer," noted Cernan, "if you consider those damned mountains that seemed to be grinning around us like gigantic decayed teeth."
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Cernan's words hint that the flight did not go well. An error on the part of the crew resulted in the wrong navigational mode being set, and when the bolts were blown to separate the ascent and descent stages of the lunar module, "Snoopy went nuts," Cernan said.
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Snoopy was the call sign of the lunar module for Apollo 10. The command and service module was dubbed Charlie Brown.
The incident lasted only approximately eight seconds – although some sources put it as nearer 20 seconds – before control was regained. Still, we imagine it felt like a very long time for both crew and mission controllers.
"I didn't know it at the time," wrote Cernan, "but my cursing, done in a very intense moment, was about to ignite a firestorm of criticism."
There had been a good deal of colorful language from the astronauts during the mission, including Cernan hollering "SON OF A BITCH" as the lunar module appeared to go out of control.
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He wrote: "Our transcribers had been treated to more than a few goddamns, fucks and shits and learned that astronauts in space can get royally pissed off."
"The good reverend Dr Larry Poland, president of the Miami Bible College, was most distressed that we had carried to the Moon" langage befitting "a restroom wall," and Cernan was blamed. According to the former astronaut, out of every hundred letters received on the subject, 99 supported the crew. Still, NASA caved in and wheeled out Cernan to apologize for any offense.
Forgiveness was duly dispensed by the offended reverend. "That didn't make much difference to me," wrote Cernan. "I never got around to forgiving that self-righteous prig. Bunch of goddamned hogwash."
The crew of Apollo 10 is no longer with us. Tom Stafford died in March 2024 at the age of 93. Cernan died in 2017, and Young in 2018. The Apollo 10 command module can be seen at London's Science Museum, but the Snoopy lunar module was jettisoned into a heliocentric orbit. As far as astronomers can tell, the empty spacecraft has remained [11]in orbit around the Sun ever since. ®
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[2] https://search.worldcat.org/title/The-last-man-on-the-moon-:-astronaut-Eugene-Cernan-and-America's-race-in-space/oclc/245919586
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[11] https://nationalpost.com/news/apollo-10-artemis-lunar-module
[12] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Re: Those were the days my friend, we thought they'd never end...
No, Apollo was not a better job than private enterprise. It ended up being "flag and footprints" and that was it. After all the money spent developing it, the technology was thrown in the trash.
The state just had more money to burn, and a "we gotta beat them Russkies to the Moon" goal.
Prior to that, Apollo was planned to be a long buildup to actually putting a permanent base on the Moon. Then the Space Race happened and Apollo became "well this is whut we gots so this is what we're going with"
The ONLY reason Apollo happened is Kennedy got shot, and it became "we can't let John Kennedy down, can we?" so NASA got a blank check from Congress for the only time in history.
If he'd lived, it would have been the standard Congressional "fuck whatever the president is for" infighting that's gone on with NASA ever since, and it's pretty questionable that we would have done more than two flights.
> It would have been seven landings
It would have been more if Apollo 15 (moving to 16's rover mission), 18, 19, and 20 were canceled when Saturn V production was shut down. The Apollo 20 Saturn V launched Skylab.
Nixon wanted to cancel 15, 16, and 17, and Caspar Weinberger fought for them.
Re: Those were the days my friend, we thought they'd never end...
No, it was the height of the Cold War with nuclear annihalation just a mistake away. The US needed dominance over the Soviet and Chinese communists, they would have got the money even if Kennedy had not been assassinated. Kennedy lit the blue touch paper and the political momentum was then unstoppable, and the military aspect was vital.
Once 'supremacy' had been achieved then yes, interest waned and funding dwindled, and that's my main point.
With all of that technical achievement and knowledge inside engineer's brains it could have been relatively easy to continue with the flow, rather than an abrupt halt for a couple of decades, engineers and know-how retiring, culminating with the ignominy of the USA relying of Soviet Soyuz space craft and engines to reach just the ISS in orbit around the Earth.
Fifty odd years later, here we are, and the wheel is being largely invented, and at great cost and delay compared to having had NASA keep ticking over for the past few decades. Space X have done a great job, but it could have been so different.
Thanks
I don't have anything to say except "thanks" for a well written article.
Cernan ended up being the last man on the Moon, something that really disappointed him in later life.
In some ways, we haven't progressed much
What towering achievements, the Mercury and Apollo programmes. Hats off (posthumously) to all involved.
Going off at a tangent, I find it weird that Americans seem happy with regular mass shootings but are so offended by the words 'toilet' and 'lavatory', preferring this bathroom /restroom nonsense. Most odd.
Re: In some ways, we haven't progressed much
I had no idea what a "lavatory" refers to, until I googled it. Is that French or something?
The "toilet" is the thing you sit on in the bathroom that flushes. It's the "bathroom" because, well, it's the room with the bath in it and it's quicker to say than toiletroom or showerroom.
"Restroom" is the sign that HR sticks on the door because HR thinks going poopy is icky and there's no bath in there at work. Nobody else uses restroom.
Re: In some ways, we haven't progressed much
"I had no idea what a "lavatory" refers to, until I googled it. Is that French or something?"
Erm, Latin actually. Have you heard of the Romans, they had an Empire 2000 years ago ? It was very successful for a while, until they got lazy and arrogant. History has a habit of rhyming, take note, be careful...
And the offended reverend? When did he shuffle off his mortal coil? People want to know! ;-)
Variety.com
Larry Poland, Founder and CEO of Mastermedia International, Dies at 83
McKinley Franklin
May 9, 2023 at 11:27 PM·1 min read
Larry Poland, the founder of Mastermedia International, died on May 3
Seems he did well in the religious media game....
One great mystery still remains
There were three astronauts inside the lunar module that day. No one claimed responsibility at the time or since. They took the secret to their graves.
https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/poop-space-apollo-10-astronauts-turds-mission-nasa-transcripts_n_3054324
While 1960's censors probably disagree, I'm inclined to believe that those employed in dangerous government work are more than entitled to use choice language in public.
Nancies sitting behind their keyboard expressing outrage to their local church gathering via a newsletter can cry all they like but they aren't the ones taking the risks.
At the other end of the scale, Ferrari employees will note that criticising the car publically WILL get you fired. No matter how true your statement is.
The one where Adam fucked Eve's brains out
I am frequently bemused by America's puritanicalism.
It's the 20th anniversary year of Janet Jackson's Super Bowl 'nipplegate' exposure and some are still losing their shit over that.
Those were the days my friend, we thought they'd never end...
Those were the days, no pussyfooting about, no onerous health and safety regulations, just pioneering, risk taking, trial and error, but also a very large dollop of adult common sense which helped avoid too many disasters!
It resulted in not just one lunar landing, but six, contrary to the conspiracy nuts' claims. It would have been seven landings if not for Apollo 13 oxygen tank exploding. Tom Hanks and his crew did a great job to get back to Earth. Also led to the amazing Space Shuttle program.
Unfortunately, the politicians and the bean counters stopped investing and we are where we are today, state-funded billionaires playing with their toys and crossing their fingers. Don't get me wrong, they've done a decent job, especially with re-usable rockets, but we're decades behind where we could / should have been, already with a permanent lunar base and at least 1 human landing on Mars. Sometimes the State does know better, and does a better job than private enterprise, and space flight is one such area.