Snoopy and Charlie Brown Are Hugging Each Other in Apollo 10 Docking

Summary: Snoopy and Charlie Brown are hugging each other in the Apollo 10 docking success confirmation given by Mission Commander Thomas Stafford.

The Mission Operations Control Room (MOCR) in Mission Control Center (MCC), Building 30, celebrates successful docking of Command Module Charlie Brown and Lunar Module Snoopy with cartoon of Snoopy giving Charlie Brown a congratulatory kiss and praise, ‘On target, Charlie Brown!’ Note replicas of Snoopy, in a spacesuit, and Charlie Brown on console, second row (right center); Friday, May 23, 1969; NASA ID s69-34877: National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), Public Domain, via NASA

Snoopy and Charlie Brown are hugging each other in the Apollo 10 docking success assurance reported to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA) Mission Control Center (MCC) by Mission Commander Thomas Stafford.

Commander Thomas Patten Stafford (born Sept. 17, 1930), Command Module Pilot (CMP) John Watts Young (born Sept. 24, 1930) and Lunar Module Pilot (LMP) Eugene Andrew Cernan (born March 14, 1934) named their spacecraft after characters in the Peanuts comic strip created by Charles Monroe “Sparky” Schulz (Nov. 26, 1922-Feb. 12, 2000). Command and Service Module (CSM)-106 received the call sign of Charlie Brown. Lunar Module (LM)-4 was named Snoopy.

Apollo 10 launched Sunday, May 18, 1969, at 16:49:00 Greenwich Mean Time/Coordinated Universal Time (11:49 p.m. Eastern Standard Time; 12:49 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time) from the John F. Kennedy Space Center’s (KSC) Launch Pad 39-B in central Florida. The Apollo space program’s fourth crewed mission was designed as a “dress rehearsal,” without the lunar landing, for the first lunar landing mission, Apollo 11.

The Apollo 10 Press Kit, released Wednesday, May 7, 1969, described the lunar orbit mission as marking the first lunar flight of the complete Apollo spacecraft. The Press Kit explained: “Following closely the time line and trajectory to be flown on Apollo 11, Apollo 10 will include an eight-hour sequence of lunar module (LM) undocked activities during which the commander and LM pilot will descend to within eight nautical miles of the lunar surface and later rejoin the command/service module (CSM) in a 60-nautical-mile circular orbit” (page 1).

Command Module Charlie Brown and Lunar Module Snoopy undocked Thursday, May 22, at 19:00:57 GMT/UTC (2 p.m. EST, 3 p.m. EDT). The undocking occurred 98 hours 11 minutes 57 seconds (098:11:57 Ground Elapsed Time GET) after liftoff. Commander Stafford occupied Lunar Module Snoopy with the lander spacecraft’s pilot, Eugene Cernan, while John Young, as Charlie Brown’s pilot, remained in the command module.

Four and one-half hours later, at 23:34:16 GMT/UTC (6:34 p.m. EST, 7:34 p.m. EDT; 102:45:16.9 GET), Lunar Module Snoopy’s ascent and descent stages were separated. The jettison placed the descent stage into a lunar orbit aimed at eventual impact on the lunar surface.

Rendezvous maneuvers brought the Snoopy’s ascent stage and Charlie Brown’s command module into alignment for docking. Docking occurred Friday, May 23, at 03:11:02 GMT/UTC (Thursday, May 22, at 10:11 p.m. EST, 11:11 p.m. EDT; 106:22:02 GET).

Commander Stafford descriptively affirmed the successful docking for Mission Control Center. “Hello, Houston. Snoopy and Charlie Brown are hugging each other,” he announced.

Twenty-four seconds later, the commander complimented John Young’s control of CM Charlie Brown during the docking. “Okay, John,” he said, “That was beautiful. Just beautiful, babe.” (Apollo 10 PAO Mission Commentary Transcript: page 383).

The three astronauts revisited Snoopy and Charlie Brown’s successful hug during their crew debriefing, conducted Monday, June 2. Lunar Module Snoopy Pilot Cernan recalled: “We were just partying.”

Commander Stafford noted: “Then John damped the maneuver. A loud ripple bang was heard as the latches latched.”

Command Module Charlie Brown Pilot Young mused: “A sigh of relief was given by all” (Apollo 10 Technical Crew Debriefing, 9-47).

The Apollo modules were constructed with a probe and drogue system. Docking required alignment of the command module’s docking probe with the lunar module’s drogue. The devices were mounted in the modules’ docking tunnels. Initial soft contact between the two modules was achieved by extending three capture latches in the CM probe’s tip to engage in a hole at the drogue’s bottom. The command module pilot brought the modules together by retracting the probe. Engaging the lunar module’s docking tunnel with the command modules 12 docking latches effected a hard dock.

The takeaway for Snoopy and Charlie Brown hugging each other in the Apollo 10 docking of the lunar module with the command module after the lunar module’s lunar surface orbits is that the Apollo 10 astronauts smoothly and successfully performed the crucial maneuver in the mission’s “dress rehearsal” for the subsequent lunar-landing mission, Apollo 11.

artist concept of Lunar Module ascent stage docked to Command/Service Module; LM ascent stage had left lunar surface for rendezvous with Command/Service Module (CSM); Dec. 1, 1966; NASA ID S66-11007; S66-05105; File Name 10074639: National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), Public Domain, via NASA Kennedy Space Center (KSC) Science, Technology and Engineering website

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

The Mission Operations Control Room (MOCR) in Mission Control Center (MCC), Building 30, celebrates successful docking of Command Module Charlie Brown and Lunar Module Snoopy with cartoon of Snoopy giving Charlie Brown a congratulatory kiss and praise, ‘On target, Charlie Brown!’ Note replicas of Snoopy, in a spacesuit, and Charlie Brown on console, second row (right center); Friday, May 23, 1969; NASA ID s69-34877: National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), Public Domain, via NASA @ https://www.nasa.gov/feature/50-years-ago-charlie-brown-and-snoopy-in-lunar-orbit

artist concept of Lunar Module ascent stage docked to Command/Service Module; LM ascent stage had left lunar surface for rendezvous with Command/Service Module (CSM); Dec. 1, 1966; NASA ID S66-11007; S66-05105; File Name 10074639: National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), Public Domain, via NASA Kennedy Space Center (KSC) Science, Technology and Engineering website @ https://science.ksc.nasa.gov/mirrors/images/images/pao/APOLL_OV/10074639.jpg

For further information:

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