Lunar Landing

Apollo 50
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Joseph Vick, the manager of museum education at the US Space & Rocket Center, discusses the Mobile Quarantine Facility used by Apollo 12 astronauts Pete Conrad, Al Bean and Dick Gordon after their mission to the Moon with Defense & Aerospace Report Editor Vago Muradian in Huntsville, Ala. The three spent two weeks in the modified Airstream trailer to ensure that potential diseases from the lunar surface didn’t contaminate planet Earth. Apollo missions 11, 12 and 14 astronauts that made it to the Moon used the mobile facilities immediately after landing — entering the trailer after splashdown aboard USS Hornet through return to the United States — until scientists concluded that the precaution was unnecessary.

Apollo 50
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Lt. Gen. Thomas P. Stafford, USAF Ret., legendary NASA astronaut discusses the Apollo 10 moon mission he commanded between May 18-26, 1969, that paved the way for Apollo 11’s historic landing two months later discusses the importance of his mission to test the Lunar Module in lunar orbit, the need to commemorate the moon program, lessons from the massive national effort to beat the Soviets, the Trump administration’s plan to return to the moon and more with Defense & Aerospace Report Editor Vago Muradian. The interview was recorded on May 24, 2019, five decades earlier to the day, Stafford and his crew mates John Young and Gene Cernan began their return to Earth, becoming the fastest humans in history by achieving a top speed of 24,791 mph. Aside from commanding Apollo 10, Stafford was pilot aboard Gemini 6A, commanded by Wally Schirra, for the first Earth orbit rendezvous with Gemini 7, commanded by Frank Borman and piloted by Jim Lovell. Stafford also commanded Gemini 9 with Cernan as pilot as well as the US portion of the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project, the first rendezvous between an American and Soviet spacecraft in July 1975.