Apollo 10 Stopped Just 47k Feet from the Moon

In a sense, though, those were the instructions, and that was the burden, borne by the relatively unheralded crew of Apollo 10 fifty years ago this month. Delays in the completion of the lunar lander, also known as the Lunar Excursion Module, meant that Apollo 8 would be the first crewed lunar mission to fly the command module only, from which 1968’s famed “Earthrise” photo was taken. It fell to the crew of Apollo 9 in March 1969, to fly the first test mission of the lander into space, spending 10 days in Earth orbit.

Source: www.nytimes.com