Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!watmath!iuvax!rutgers!bellcore!grits!ddavey
From: ddavey@grits.ctt.bellcore.com (Doug Davey)
Newsgroups: sci.space
Subject: Re: Apollo 8, 9, and 10
Message-ID: <17231@bellcore.bellcore.com>
Date: 19 Jul 89 13:46:48 GMT
References: <377@dftsrv.gsfc.nasa.gov> <1989Jul19.005449.3163@utzoo.uucp>
Sender: news@bellcore.bellcore.com
Reply-To: ddavey@grits.UUCP (Doug Davey)
Organization: Planning and Engineering Systems Lab, Bellcore
Lines: 23

In article <1989Jul19.005449.3163@utzoo.uucp> henry@utzoo.uucp (Henry Spencer) writes:
> orbit, Apollo 10 flew a dress rehearsal of the landing (including LM
> descent to 10 miles above the Moon), and Apollo 11 was the big one.

The line that sticks in my mind from Apollo 10 was:

	"We're really down among 'em!"

It must have been quite a sight to be in orbit, but be only 10 miles
above the surface.

Does anybody remember whether the ascent or descent engine was used
during Apollo 10's return from low orbit to rendezvous with the CSM?
Either option seems difficult.  On the one hand, I would not expect
the descent engine to be restartable.  On the other, firing the
ascent engine and getting the ascent stage cleanly separated from the
descent stage would be tricky since the descent stage was deigned to
be firmly on the lunar surface during this operation.

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