On May 22, 1969, two spacecraft separated into lunar orbit. In one are Thomas Stafford and Eugene Cernan; John Young stays in the other. Astronauts and controllers can call them Snoopy and Charlie Brown without joking: these are their official communication codes.
The crew of Apollo 10 chose the names of the Peanuts characters for the lunar module and the command module. The cartoon thus provided a very concrete vocabulary to a mission responsible for preparing the first inhabited moon landing. NASA keeps the photographs of the two craft and their names.
Snoopy did not carry a dog to the moon; Apollo 10 did not put its astronauts there. The surprise is this perfectly real mix between a familiar comic book universe and a demanding space operation. For a few hours, we had to find Charlie Brown after leaving his ship with Snoopy.
What we know
Vessel signs, not animals transported; Apollo 10 did not land.
To go to the source
References consulted on 3 October 2026. Linked pages may be in another language.
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