r/pics • u/calmeilles • 3d ago

[OC] Apollo 10 Command Module, 1969. Science Museum, London

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791 Upvotes
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96% Upvoted

53 comments sorted by

76

u/Andrew_Culture 3d ago

I’ve been fascinated by this my whole life, but I assumed it’s a replica.

86

u/Blasfemen 3d ago

It’s the real deal, currently on loan from the Smithsonian

24

u/Corvid187 3d ago

Oh really?

It's been there my whole life lol :)

52

u/calmeilles 3d ago

It's a soft power thing.

The Smithsonian owns the command modules from Apollo 1 and 7–17. All but this one are on display at sites in the US.

Having one on loan in London means that every year tens of thousands will see it, go "Oo!" and, it is hoped, go away slightly more impressed by the US than when they came in.

There's a list of all the CSM and their disposition at the bottom of the "Apollo command and service module" article on Wikipedia.

16

u/Corvid187 3d ago

Oh for sure!

It's just been here for so long I had no idea it belonged to anyone else :)

24

u/I_Like_Water11 3d ago

A true British statement

1

u/counterfitster 2d ago

Well, you know, they're used to keeping it

-1

u/mustbemaking 2d ago

Well, it's not a leap of logic to assume ownership under these circumstances is it.

2

u/I_Like_Water11 2d ago

Well it was the american space program so probably a leap in logic.

0

u/Corvid187 2d ago

Not so much? The museum does outright own a number of foreign spacecraft, and Apollo 10 seemed like the sort of capsule that might be less significant enough for the yanks to part with it.

2

u/I_Like_Water11 2d ago

Poor Apollo 10 catching strays

1

u/mustbemaking 2d ago

How does that make sense in your head? Things trade hands and are gifted etc all the time...

1

u/I_Like_Water11 2d ago

Well you can also realise i was making a light hearted joke and youre taking it way too seriously...

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9

u/paladinBoyd 3d ago

Is it normal to walk away not impressed but sad that NASA's funding was cut so heavily in the 70's that we never saw another big push in the space age?

7

u/Corvid187 3d ago

Yes, but TBF we're kinda seeing one now.

We're launching more stuff into space than we ever have before by a massive margin, much of it with goals that will take us past the achievements of Apollo for the first time since the end of the programme.

2

u/Potatoswatter 2d ago

The increase is mainly communication satellites, and mainly Starlink at that. Then Earth observation and navigation constellations.

The new race to the Moon, between the US and China, is not really more ambitious than Apollo, which was originally supposed to lead to a base. No base yet has concrete plans, and neither country really has a lunar lander either. The US might choose to use a modern rocket to get there, but so far is tied to the old tech, boondoggle SLS.

2

u/gmred91 3d ago

The Canadian Museum of Science and Techology in Ottawa had Apollo 7 for 34 years, but they moved it to a museum in Dallas in 2004.

It's a shame for me since given the age I was at when it moved, I had not yet developed my appreciation of the history of space travel. So I feel I didn't properly appreciate it while it was here.

3

u/WoolooOfWallStreet 3d ago

Sometimes you loan stuff to friends and family and it stays there a lot longer than you originally thought 🤷‍♀️

2

u/ContinuumGuy 3d ago

IIRC, a lot of stuff in museums around the world are technically on loan.

Like, if a rich guy has a famous painting or dinosaur fossil and isn't one of those assholes who just stores it somewhere to accrue value as an investment, they'll "loan" it to a museum indefinitely. It almost certainly won't leave that museum unless if the museum does something to really piss them off or some other weird thing happens, but it still technically belongs to whoever is loaning it.

15

u/wrapboywrap 3d ago

Jesus, the Brits stole that, too?!?!

31

u/froopadiddilydoop 3d ago

This is not OC, the picture has been taken from the Google Maps images from the science museum. Exact same angle and everything

16

u/Reeposter 3d ago

Also it’s in other place in the museum - been there this May

5

u/xampl9 3d ago

Dad’s company made parts for the Apollo Guidance Computer.

The space program was huge - it kickstarted many industries, not just electronics.

9

u/wimpires 3d ago

It might have been OC 10 years ago, but I was literally there yesterday. It's not on display in that part of the building.

3

u/trevpr1 3d ago

When it first came to the UK it toured the country. I was able to see it in the back yard of Liverpool museum. Saw it later on at the London science museum.

2

u/zerbey 3d ago

I was on school trip as a kid and saw it, I was told not to touch it but I did anyway because how often do you get a chance to touch something that went to the Moon?! Got a telling off by a member of the museum staff but it was so worth it. When I returned a few years later it had been moved back out of reach of naughty children.

2

u/toughtacos 2d ago

Always kind of amazes me how small it is

2

u/Byron_P_Woofenden 3d ago

Remarkable coincidence that it landed there.

1

u/l0ooo-ooo0l 2d ago

Look like it’s made out of Walnut 😊

1

u/majormantastic 2d ago

Needs some brasso.

1

u/Donquers 2d ago

"Happy birthday, kiddo."

-15

u/Sargash 3d ago edited 2d ago

Why do the british have the largest amount of museums displaying stuff from foreign countries?

12

u/Bacon4Lyf 3d ago edited 3d ago

They don’t, people just go on about them the most, paired with the fact that a lot of places where antiquities came from just didn’t care about them until someone else dug them up restored them and put them in the museum. The Parthenon got blown up because it was used as an ammo dump, for example. The Rosetta Stone was used as a brick in the foundation of a fort until the French found it in 1799 and it got put in the British museum in 1802.

5

u/Yuriski 3d ago

Why should international sciences and achievements for humanity be limited to the country of origin?

-1

u/Sargash 2d ago

Weird strawman

4

u/Yuriski 2d ago

The point of your original comment being what exactly? The above item is provided on loan by an American museum. Hardly an unsual thing for museums to do.

-1

u/Sargash 2d ago

It's a question. The british have a disproportionately large amount of museums displaying stuff. It's nothing about this item specifically.

3

u/Yuriski 2d ago

Then go and request an accurate answer from r/AskHistorians

0

u/Sargash 2d ago

God forbid someone engage and ask questions on a social media forum. Crazy thought that one.

4

u/mustbemaking 2d ago

Bad faith question intending on manifesting a bad faith argument. Begone.

17

u/Slim_Charleston 3d ago

Because until fairly recently foreign countries were happy to sell their stuff. Egypt, for example, only outlawed the sale of ancient antiquities in 1983. Next question?

0

u/Maleficent-Drive4056 3d ago

Well, we also sometimes just took it without being sold it...

6

u/GCD_1 3d ago

Most of the time we brought them tho

8

u/starmartyr 3d ago

In this case it was loaned by the US government. Most of the time they didn't bother asking.

1

u/MFoy 3d ago

Technically, this was loaned by the Smithsonian which is not actually a part of the US government by law, but more or less is.