March 24, 2022
On this date in 1969, NASA announced that Apollo 10 would be a lunar orbiting mission only – that it would not be landing on the moon. This flight acted as a test run for the Apollo 11 mission that would land humans on the moon a few months later. There was not enough fuel for Apollo 10 to land on the moon and return to Earth. Cernan, one of the astronauts aboard Apollo 10, speculated that NASA intentionally reduced the amount of fuel to prevent them from taking the opportunity to land.
To read more about this mission, visit: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/13/science/apollo-10-moon-nasa.html
The lunar module reached approximately 47,000 ft (14.3 km) from the surface of the moon before re-docking and returning to Earth. Image credit: JSC/NASA
