Photographic print: LM Descent Monitoring Chart, Apollo Mission 10

LM Descent Monitoring Chart, Apollo Mission 10, 24 May 1969 Launch Date, produced for NASA, USA, c. 1969.

The United States’ National Aeronautical and Space Administration’s (NASA) Apollo programme for landing astronauts on the Moon generated millions of associated mission documents. Some were made available to press and media. These included charts projecting the ground track of the spacecraft, as it orbited the Moon, over a detailed photographic montage of surface features. The photographs had been generated from the unmanned Lunar Orbiter missions of 1966-67. The charts provided an accurate prediction of where each Apollo spacecraft would be and what features would be visible to the crew and mission controllers at any specific time while circling the Moon.

This particular chart was produced for the Apollo 10 mission (using a 24 May 1969 launch rather than 18 May, the date finally chosen), which tested the lunar module (lander) down to 11 km altitude above the lunar surface. It shows target landing site number 5, one of several earmarked for future landing missions.

Produced at: John F Kennedy Space Center, Brevard county, Canaveral, Cape, Florida, United States.