All but one of the Apollo program’s used lunar modules either crashed into the Moon’s surface or burned up in Earth’s atmosphere.
The Apollo 10 astronauts snapped this photo of the Snoopy lunar module outside the window of command module Charlie Brown during the mission. Credit: NASA/JSC/ASU
What became of the discarded lunar modules from the Apollo missions?
James Jarvis
San Francisco, California
All but one of the Apollo program’s used lunar modules either crashed into the Moon’s surface or burned up in Earth’s atmosphere. Apollo 10’s lunar module, Snoopy, is still out there, drifting aimlessly around the solar system, waiting for some future exo-archaeologist to snatch it up for display at the Smithsonian.
The mission was designed as a rehearsal for the main event on the Moon, but it set records of its own. History glazes over Apollo 10 because of the significance of what followed. However, the crew completed the same tasks as Apollo 11 — minus landing on the Moon.
And they used Snoopy, the lunar module, as well as Charlie Brown, the command module, to travel farther and faster than any humans have before or since.
During the mission, Snoopy was jettisoned into space as planned and should have entered orbit around the Sun. However, its location remains a mystery despite efforts by amateur astronomers to search for it using the last known 1969 orbital coordinates. They identified a number of target sites, but so far they’ve been unsuccessful.
Interestingly, at least some of the other landers’ exact lunar impact sites — including Apollo 11’s Eagle — are also a mystery that future space explorers may someday find and excavate.
Eric Betz
Science Writer, Seattle, Washington
This question and answer originally appeared in the October 2015 issue.
