Video: 'Apollo 10 Launch: CBS News (May 18, 1969)' (Apollo 10 launches on video #10 at 3:02)

(Sunday, May 18, 1969, 16:49:00 UTC) — Three American astronauts rocketed their Apollo 10 spacecraft toward the Moon today from Cape Kennedy on a critical “dress rehearsal” flight to clear the way for a planned lunar landing by men just two months from now.

In the second manned Apollo mission to orbit the Moon, the Apollo 10 crew, including Thomas P. Stafford, John W. Young and Eugene A. Cernan aboard, would detach the lunar module from the lunar orbiter, and descend (but not actually landing) on the Moon’s surface.

According to the 2002 Guinness World Records, Apollo 10 set the record for the highest speed attained by a manned vehicle: 24,791 mph on May 26, 1969, during the return from the Moon.