Apollo 10 was the fourth human spaceflight in the United States' Apollo program and the second to orbit the Moon. NASA, the mission's operator, described it as a "dress rehearsal" for the first Moon landing. It was designated an "F" mission, intended to test all spacecraft components and procedures short of actual descent and landing.
Apollo 10's Lunar Module, Snoopy, approaches the Command and Service Module Charlie Brown for redocking
Left to right: Cernan, Stafford, YoungApollo program← Apollo 9Apollo 11 →
En route to launch, Stafford touches a "Snoopy" doll
Apollo 10 space-flown silver Robbins medallion
The Apollo program, also known as Project Apollo, was the United States human spaceflight program carried out by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), which succeeded in preparing and landing the first men on the Moon from 1968 to 1972. It was first conceived in 1960 during President Dwight D. Eisenhower's administration as a three-person spacecraft to follow the one-person Project Mercury, which put the first Americans in space. Apollo was later dedicated to President John F. Kennedy's national goal for the 1960s of "landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth" in an address to Congress on May 25, 1961. It was the third US human spaceflight program to fly, preceded by the two-person Project Gemini conceived in 1961 to extend spaceflight capability in support of Apollo.
Buzz Aldrin (pictured) walked on the Moon with Neil Armstrong, on Apollo 11, July 20–21, 1969.
Earthrise, the iconic 1968 image from Apollo 8 taken by astronaut William Anders
President Kennedy delivers his proposal to put a man on the Moon before a joint session of Congress, May 25, 1961.
George Mueller, Wernher von Braun, and Eberhard Rees watch the AS-101 launch from the firing room.