It may have seemed like a typical, steamy late-spring day in Central Florida 50 years ago, but it wasn’t.
When was the last time three astronauts, two vice presidents, a king, a queen, hundreds of journalists and a pesky grass snake all attended the same event?
That would be May 18, 1969, for the launch of the most atypical moon mission in American history, Apollo 10.
It would be the first and last time a mighty Saturn V rocket would blast off from Kennedy Space Center carrying three men to the moon with the express intention of getting them as close as possible to the lunar surface without actually touching it.
That honor, of course, would go to the moon-landing crew of Apollo 11 – men with names etched in history: Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins.
But for Gene Cernan, Thomas Stafford and Orlando’s John Young – the less-well-known crew of Apollo 10 – their mission was to fly a successful dress rehearsal for Armstrong, Aldrin and Collins.
“Although Apollo 10 will pass no closer than eight nautical miles from the lunar surface, all other aspects of the mission will be similar to the first lunar landing mission, Apollo 11, now scheduled for July,” NASA explained in its press kit for the mission. “The trajectory, timeline and maneuvers follow the lunar-landing profile.”
With a few very big exceptions: There would be no “The Eagle has landed” moment or “That’s one small step for man…” memorable quote.
If that bothered the Apollo 10 astronauts or anyone else, it didn’t show at the time.
An estimated 300,000 people came to Brevard County for the launch. Among them was an eclectic list of VIPs including Supreme Court Justices Thurgood Marshall and Byron White as well as retired Air Force Gen. Jimmy Doolittle, the World War II hero.
Vice President Spiro T. Agnew also came, as did the man who held his job before him, Hubert H. Humphrey. Just six months after losing the presidency to Agnew’s boss, Richard Nixon, Humphrey “stole” the VIP show, according to a story in the Orlando Sentinel the day after the launch.
“There were 7,000 invited guests assembled in the VIP section and 6,999 of them were straining to get a glimpse of the pre-launch show-stopper, former Vice President Hubert Humphrey,” the story said.
The former VP really got the royal treatment, being seated near visiting King Baudouin of Belgium and his wife, Queen Fabiola. They arrived from South Florida with a traveling party that included then-Florida Gov. Claude Kirk and his actress-wife, Erika.
For the 1,500 journalists at the launch site, their focus went from looking up at the Saturn V rocket to looking down at the ground when an unexpected visitor entered their press area just before blastoff.
“A grass snake, about two feet in length, slithered into a group of newsmen sitting on the grass slope in front of the press site,” the Sentinel reported. The snake “startled the wits” out of media members before a NASA official captured and removed it.
Secure in his broadcast booth at Kennedy Space Center, veteran CBS News anchor Walter Cronkite didn’t have to worry about snakes, but he did have to find a way to explain to TV viewers the significance of the Apollo 10 mission.
“Every time there is another Apollo mission, we say it is the most demanding yet. Because every time there is another Apollo mission, that happens to be true,” Cronkite said to open his launch-day broadcast. “Each mission is planned as another step in the ultimate goal of landing a man on the moon. Apollo 10 … marks the first time the complete Apollo spacecraft will operate around the moon.”
That meant flying and testing the lunar module for the first time once in lunar orbit. While Young remained behind in the orbiting command module nicknamed Charlie Brown, Cernan and Stafford took the LM – nicknamed Snoopy – out for a test drive near the surface of the moon.
Good grief, things did not go smoothly.
The lunar module went out of control as the astronauts made their second low-level flight over the moon on May 22. “Son of a bitch!” Cernan exclaimed over the radio channel to mission control as the LM started rolling wildly.
After officials on the ground determined a switch was to blame for the uncontrolled roll, the issue was resolved and the astronauts did another test of the lunar module.
When they flew over the Sea of Tranquility, planned landing site for Apollo 11, Cernan excitedly radioed back, “We’re right there! We’re right over it! I’m telling you, we are low, we’re close, babe. This is it!”
Maybe as a reward for not giving into temptation and taking the lunar lander to the surface that day, NASA would send Cernan back to the moon in December 1972 on the final Apollo mission. He got to finally land and leave the last human footprint that is currently on the moon.
Young, meanwhile, got to plant his foot on the moon several months earlier when he commanded Apollo 16 in April 1972.
And while the Apollo 10 astronauts didn’t get the to be first men to land on the moon, they did become the first men to accomplish a different feat in space during their mission.
“We’re in the process of commencing scientific experiment Sugar Hotel Alpha Victor Echo,” one of the crew radioed to mission control a day before landing, using the military’s phonetic alphabet to spell the word “shave.”
NASA had long forbidden shaving in zero-gravity, fearing floating whiskers could mess up sensitive systems in the spacecraft, the Sentinel reported on May 26.
The Apollo 10 crew couldn’t get too close to the moon, but they could get a close shave – albeit an atypical one.
Celebrate the 50th anniversary of the historic Apollo 11 lunar landing with our new book, “Apollo 50: The Golden Anniversary of America’s Moon Landing.” Order today and get $10 off the retail price. Go to OrlandoSentinel.com/Apollo50