Monday, October 2, 2000

Apollo 10 (Snoopy)

  1969-043D


Lunar Module 4 was assigned to the Apollo 10 mission, and nicknamed Snoopy after a comic strip character. Commander was Col. Tom Stafford, USAF, and LMP was Cdr. Gene Cernan, USN.

During preparations for undocking on May 22, the tunnel between the CSM and the LM would not vent properly. To work around this the LM was partially depressurized to 3.5 psi.

On 1969 May 22 Snoopy undocked from Charlie Brown (CSM 106), and fired the DPS in a Descent Orbit Insertion burn, going down to a 15 km altitude flyby of Apollo Landing Site 2, the future Tranquility Base. The LM 4 crew made visual observations and tests of the landing radar. The DPS was fired again in a phasing burn which increased perilune to 22 km. Two hours after the low pass, the descent stage was jettisoned. As this happened, the ascent stage entered a spin as the RCS jets fired in response to faulty data caused by an incorrect switch position. The crisis was soon over and the crew recovered control in only 8 seconds.

The ascent stage's APS engine was fired after jettison, sending Apollo 10 into solar orbit. The exact orbit is not known, but one estimate gives 2 km/s velocity at infinity corresponding to a range of 0.8 to 1.3 AU in extreme heliocentric range, depending on the angle; for most angles the deviation from 1AU is much smaller; an orbit of 0.9 x 1.1 AU is a reasonable guess.


Snoopy (LM4) 
 

DateTimeEventOrbit  

1969 May 18  1649:00 Launched as cargo on SA-505  KSC LC39B 
 2045:24 Removed from S-4B-505 by CSM-106 
1969 May 22  1549  Power up, crew entry 
 1747:50 T+96:58:50 Begin LM depress to 3.5 psi 
 1748:07 At 3.5 psi 
 1749:46 At 4.0 psi 
 1751:04 Repress 
 1751:41 At 5 psi 
 1900:57 T+98:11:57 Undocked from CSM 106  109 x 114  
 2035:00 DPS burn, DOI (0:27) 
 2035:28 DOI CO  15 x 113 
 2130  15 km low pass over Tranquility 
 2147:25 DPS phasing  22 x 352 
 2334:17 T+102:45:17 DS jettison  21 x 352 
 2334  RCS burns, AS in spin 
 2334  AS control recovered 
 2344:01 APS burn (0:15)   
 2344:16 APS CO  21 x 84  
1969 May 23  0034:55 RCS CSI   
 0035:22 CSI CO  77 x 87 
 0132:53 CDH 2s  78 x 87 
 0211:55 RCS TPI  87 x 107 
 0212:12 TPI CO  86 x 111 x 178.9 
 0304  RCS TPF, rendezvous with CSM 
 0311:02 Docked with CSM 106  101 x 111 x 178.8 
 0326  HO, Crew transferred to CSM 106 
 0437? HC 
 0506  AOS
 0513:36 Undocked from CSM 10699 x 114 x 178.8 
 0514  LM cabin depressurized 
 05153.0m/s sep from cabin venting 
 0541:02 APS depletion burn (3:33) 1158m/s   

 

0544:29 207s pressure depletion decay 
 0544:35 APS shutdown, solar orbit 2.7603 km/s (dV 1132m/s) 107 x -7559 x 179.1 (MR) 
  3.030 km/s? (dV 1402m/s) 
  (dV 1169.8, Tab 8.6-IV) 
  4.91 km/s (dV 3282m/s)  104 x -4095 (MR Tab 6-IV) 
 0545:10 248s APS commanded off 
 1019  At 28078 km from Moon 
 1159  LM RCS burn 32s 8.4m/s  290 x -7739 x 179.1  
 1620   Depart Lunar SOI, R = 66183km 
 1700  At 68292 km, 1.632 km/s; end of tracking 

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