Latest News About Apollo 10 Reentry Speed

Updated 2026-04-28 13:07

I can’t pull live tool results this turn, but I can share what’s generally known about Apollo 10’s reentry speed and where to find the latest details.

Answer:

What to check for the latest, precise figures:

If you’d like, I can summarize the exact numbers from the NASA sources you’re interested in or assemble a quick comparison table of Apollo lunar-return speeds (Apollo 8, 10, 11, and 17) using publicly available mission flight journals.

Sources

Apollo ten re-entry speed? - Answers

Apollo 10 re-entered the atmosphere on May 26, 1969 at almost 40,000 km per hour, which is 11.08 km/second or 24,791 miles per hour. To date, Apollo 10 holds the record for the fastest manned reentry in history.

qa.answers.com

Mission Highlights

Apollo 10 was the fourth manned mission in the United States Apollo space program, and the second (after Apollo 8) to orbit the Moon. Launched on May 18, 1969, it was the F mission: a "dress rehearsal" for the first Moon landing, testing all of the components and procedures, just short of actually landing. The Lunar Module (LM) came to within 8.4 nautical miles (Template:Convert/round km) of the lunar surface, the point where the powered descent to the lunar surface would begin. Its...

nasa.fandom.com

Kinetic energy at atmospheric reentry from lunar mission - Pandualism

"Tom Stafford (Apollo 10 again) asserted in his own 2002 biography We Have Capture that his entry speed was 28,547mph, which works out at 41,869ft/sec – faster than a return from Mars!" I have a copy of the book in front of me, and this is what it actually says: … Once again Mary Bennett's words: "Tom Stafford (Apollo 10 again) asserted in his own 2002 biography We Have Capture that his entry speed was 28,547mph, which works out at 41,869ft/sec – faster than a return from Mars!" JayUtah in #134:

www.pandualism.com

Apollo Entry

From Apollo mission reports here Apollo 7 and 9 were earth orbit, slower reentry. Apollo 8 and 10 through 17 were lunar missions with high speed reentry of the command module. Apollo 11,12, and 14-17 were landing missions. Useful graphs for Apollo 8, 10, and 11. I cannot find useful entry information after Apollo 11, so these three sets are hopefully representative of the other six lunar missions. … EI timeLoad gV f/srange n mi° BankRdot f/s 0:000.000361901593 0:280.049362761418...

launchloop.com

Apollo 10 Flight Journal - Day 8, part 34: Awake on Splashdown day

This velocity will increase dramatically in the last couple of hours prior to Entry Interface. At 2 hours prior to entry, the speed will be about 14,500 feet per second [4,030 m/s]. One half hour later it will have increased by 2,000 feet per second [556 m/s], up to about 16,120 [fps, 4,478 m/s], and in another half hour, 1 hour prior to entry, the velocity will be up to 18,696 feet per second [5,193 m/s].

www.nasa.gov