1969: Apollo 10 gets bird's eye view of Moon
Two US astronauts aboard Apollo 10 are on their way back to the safety of their mother ship after their lunar module came to within eight nautical miles (14kms) of the Moon's surface.
Colonel Thomas Stafford and Commander Eugene Cernan were carrying out a rehearsal for a planned Moon landing this summer.
They were in the lunar module (LM) nicknamed Snoopy and are now about to rejoin the command module (aka Charlie Brown) piloted by Commander John Young 50 miles (80km) above the Moon.
The two spacemen came closer than any human being has come to a celestial body.
"Snoopy" made two passes over the planned landing site for Apollo 11 before making a successful rendez-vous with "Charlie Brown".
After the first sweep at six times the speed of sound, Col Stafford said they had taken so many photographs he feared the camera had jammed while trying to change the film.
If the mission fails to bring back still shots of possible landing sites and approaches it will be a serious blow to Apollo planners. They want to make sure astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin have a safe landing this July in Apollo 11. But Col Stafford did manage to get a good view of the surface which he described as "very smooth, like wet clay".
Commander Cernan then reported to control at Houston: "We just saw earthrise - the Earth appearing over the edge of the lunar horizon - and it's got to be magnificent. It would be nice to be here more often."
Apollo 10 was launched four days ago from Cape Kennedy. It is the fourth manned Apollo launch within seven months.
It is hoped that the mission will bring back plenty of colour stills and moving images of the Moon and views of the Earth.
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