Charlie Brown Comes Home

Apollo 10 was the last dress rehearsal before the first lunar landing. With the call signs of “Charlie Brown” for the Command Module and “Snoopy” for the Lunar Module, the combined spacecraft were the second manned mission to orbit the moon. Thomas Stafford, John Young and Eugene Cernan tested all the procedures and the performance of the spacecraft without actually performing a lunar landing. The Lunar Module was flown for the first time in lunar orbit and came within 8.4 miles of the surface. On the journey back to Earth, the spacecraft gained speed under the influence of the planets gravity. By the time “Charlie Brown” reached the reentry point, the crew was traveling faster than any human being had ever traveled before. As of 2023, Apollo 10 still holds the record for the fastest manned flight at 24,816 MPH.

Edit: Added lens flare.