Lunar Reveries 🌔

55 years ago, Cmdr Stafford flew the first Lunar Module to orbit the moon.

This incredible Apollo Remastered image is an integration from 45 frames of the 16mm DAC camera mounted in the LM, and I have the very clamp that held it in place + a rare DAC from the Apollo program (see comment below).

LMP Gene Cernan wrote of the clamp: “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. 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."

It may have been brief, but at the time Cernan exclaimed "Son of a bitch!" into a hot mic on live broadcast, which generated some complaints back on Earth. To regain control, Stafford ditched the descent stage and manually fired thrusters for eight seconds on the ascent stage. They were lucky that their orientation did not send them crashing into the moon.

Before the final jettison of the LM named Snoopy, Cernan detached this bracket assembly and brought it through the hatch with him as a special souvenir from the mission to the moon. Snoopy was left in a heliocentric orbit, the only flown LM ascent stage still intact today.

Apollo 11’s Michael Collins wrote in his autobiography, tongue in cheek: "Cancel his Boy Scout membership and hire four more stenographers to handle the influx of mail." and "Oddly enough, the moon appeared different to Apollo 10 than it did to 8. Eight had seen black and white with shades of gray separating the two. Ten, on the other hand, saw a lot of brown in the lunar surface, light tan at noon, and darker brown near sunrise and sunset… It was a small point, but one that really piqued my curiosity." — Collins, Carrying the Fire, p.337.

Author Andy Saunders: "I talk a lot about the colour of the Moon in the book. It was a 25 minute exchange on Apollo 10 coincidentally, in which the crew were describing it – the word ‘tan’ was mentioned 15 times, brown 12, white 12 and grey once… It would change with the angle of the Sun – glass spherules containing iron reflected a more reddish colour at certain Sun angles. It could also appear slightly green down on the surface due to the prevalence of the mineral olivine."

I especially like the contemplative cameos so rarely captured on the missions. What was he thinking? Well, we know he was not contemplating a rogue landing in advance of Apollo 11, as Snoopy lacked the fuel necessary to get back from the moon had he done so.