In May 1969, three NASA astronauts flew to the Moon and came within roughly nine miles of its surface. They had a lunar module, a working descent engine and a trajectory designed to simulate a Moon landing. But they were never supposed to touch down.
Thomas Stafford and Eugene Cernan descended in the lunar module Snoopy , while John Young remained in the command module Charlie Brown , orbiting above them. Their mission was Apollo 10 — the final full rehearsal before NASA attempted to put humans on the Moon.
