Souvenir from the Apollo X Lunar Module, which launched 53 […]

Souvenir from the Apollo X Lunar Module, which launched 53 years ago today. Brought back by LM Pilot Gene Cernan, contrary to protocol, it’s a treasured piece of his spacecraft, saved for posterity. And I asked him to sign it… If NASA had filled the LM fuel tanks, they could have gone for it, knowing that history would embrace them as the first on the moon.

Apollo 10 was the dress rehearsal for the Apollo 11 lunar landing, with a detached lunar module dropping tantalizingly close to the lunar surface. Gene Cernan laments: “A lot of people thought about the kind of people we were: ‘Don’t give those guys an opportunity to land, ’cause they might!’ So the ascent module, the part we lifted off the lunar surface with, was short-fueled. The fuel tanks weren’t full. So had we literally tried to land on the Moon, we couldn’t have gotten off.”

Gene Cernan detached this bracket assembly from the Lunar Module “Snoopy”and brought it through the hatch with him as a special souvenir from the mission to the moon, a mission that holds the world’s record for the fastest vehicle with humans, ever. Snoopy was left in a heliocentric orbit, the only flown LM ascent stage still intact. He describes this artifact in an accompanying letter:

“On May 21, 1969, while in lunar orbit, Tom Stafford and I entered our lunar module “Snoopy” and undocked from the command module “Charlie Brown” for our descent to the closest approach to the lunar surface at that time, accompanied by this unique Utility Bracket Assembly.

Tom and I used this bracket to clamp mission-critical hardware, such as our 16mm Mauer Digital Acquisition Camera (DAC) and light fixtures, within the interior of our lunar module. The clamp attached to a bar over the LM window.

This particular clamp held the DAC during our LM descent stage separation maneuver which resulted in a momentary gyration due to a faulty switch setting. As such, the DAC recorded the brief rotation of the LM on film for future review by Mission Control. This bracket then remained a treasured part of my personal space collection.”

This bracket was also used to film the landing approach for next lunar module, Eagle. Stafford and Cernan had the DAC running as they swept down upon the Sea of Tranquility and the future landing site of Apollo 11.

Instead of being the first on the moon, Cernan flew again as Commander of Apollo 17, and was the last footstep on the moon, well at least in the last century. On that mission, he used the same clamp to hold a makeshift fender repair together on the Lunar Rover.

Personally, I think the apocryphal story of a rogue landing is wistful thinking on Gene’s part, especially with the distance of retrospection, and what might have been. Cernan was a scoundrel, in the best Han Solo sense, to the end.