Apollo 10 Ends Successfully

In the middle of a deep blue ocean, choppy with small waves, are two rafts. On the left is a larger orange raft that surrounds the Apollo 10 spacecraft. The spacecraft is a rounded pyramid shape and is painted white. Two men in black wetsuits look on as astronaut Eugene A. Cernan emerges from the spacecraft. Two other astronauts dressed in white are already on the smaller orange raft on the right, along with another person in a black wetsuit.

NASA

Astronaut Eugene A. Cernan, lunar module pilot for the Apollo 10 mission, exits the spacecraft during recovery operations on May 26, 1969. He and the other two crew members already in the raft, Thomas P. Stafford (left) and John W. Young, were brought to the prime recovery ship, USS Princeton after splashdown.

The Apollo 10 mission was the first flight of a complete, crewed Apollo spacecraft to operate around the Moon. It encompassed all aspects of an actual crewed lunar landing, except the landing.

See more photos from the Apollo 10 mission.

Image Credit: NASA

First published at NASA.gov

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