The Apollo 10 mission that nearly ended in a lunar crash
In short: Before humans ever set foot on the moon, they had to rehearse every move. This video explores the high-stakes dress rehearsal of Apollo 10 and a terrifying technical glitch that almost turned a practice run into a disaster.
In 1969, the Apollo 10 mission served as the critical dress rehearsal for the moon landing. It tested all necessary procedures and equipment, with one major exception: they intentionally left the Lunar Module (LM) without enough fuel to actually land on or depart from the lunar surface.
The safety measure was designed to prevent astronauts Thomas Stafford and Eugene Cernan from attempting a real landing during the rehearsal. However, a human error nearly bypassed this safeguard when duplicate commands were entered into the flight computer. This caused the LM to spin out of control during ascent engine ignition, only being recovered just before the situation became unrecoverable.
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Sources
- Summary by Intellect · source: To Boldly Go Where No Fecal Matter Has Gone Before
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