Good grief! Apollo 10’s lunar module found

Astronomers believe they have found the lunar module from the Apollo 10 mission five decades after it was released into space.

Astronomers believe they have found the lunar module from the Apollo 10 mission five decades after it was released into space by the crew.

The module, just 4m wide, was nicknamed “Snoopy” and was believed to have been lost forever in 900 million kilometres of space after it was jettisoned.

Snoopy, named after the cartoon dog, was used as a practice run for the Apollo 11 lunar landing, to take place two months after Apollo 10 in July 1969.

Two of the three astronauts transferred into it to fly above the moon’s surface. They then returned to the command module.

After demonstrating the docking manoeuvre, the mission was over and Snoopy was shot off into space.

Nick Howes, a fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society, said he was certain it had been found and all they needed was someone to go and retrieve it. Mr Howes said he began the search for the module in 2011 and calculated the odds of finding it were 235 million to one.

“We are 98 per cent convinced we have found it ... until someone gets really close to it and gets a detailed radar profile, we can’t be sure,” he said. It would be a “really fantastic achievement for science” if the capsule were retrieved. “As Apollo 10 crew member Eugene Cernan said to me, ‘Son, if you find that and bring it down, imagine the queues at the Smithsonian’.”

PA