Efter uppdatering av gårdagens steg, fick vi ännu ett vykort från vägen mot månen.

Two more missions fly before Apollo 11 makes its historic journey. On 3 March 1969, Apollo 9 takes James McDivitt, David Scott, and Russell ”Rusty” Schweickart up on the Saturn V rocket on a mission to test the Lunar module, the lander that will take the astronauts to the Moon and return them safely to the spacecraft in Lunar orbit. This is the first manned flight of the entire Apollo system, and its success brings NASA one step closer to their moonshot. 

With the success of Apollo 9, Apollo 10 is launched just over three months later, on the 18th May. This was the dress rehearsal for the Moon landing, with every step of the mission being recreated except that the Lunar module would not land on the Moon’s surface. The mission goes off without any serious difficulty and makes 10 broadcasts for the people at home. As the craft nears the Moon’s orbit, the Lunar Module is launched above the planned landing site , on Moon’s Sea of Tranquillity (which you can see with your naked eye as one of the large dark spots on the Moon’s surface). Before the launch of the module, NASA disables the fuel in the module, preventing an actual landing on the Moon, which is said to have been done just in case the astronauts are tempted to attempt to make an unauthorised landing.

This is it, the Moon is now within reach. Less than 50 years previously, the idea of a human in flight was relegated to the fantasies of mythology and speculative fiction, now a Moon landing is just a few training sessions away. The equipment is checked and re-checked, three astronauts rehearse for their mission, and the American president, Republican Richard Nixon, prepares two speeches – one celebrating the mission’s success, the other, “In Event of a Moon Disaster”, in case of failure.