Biography

The Apollo 10 mission in May 1969 set the stage for Apollo 11's historic mission two months later. Stafford and Gene Cernan took the lunar lander nicknamed Snoopy within 9 miles (14 kilometers) of the moon's surface. Astronaut John Young stayed behind in the main spaceship dubbed Charlie Brown. After the moon landings ended, NASA and the Soviet Union decided on a joint docking mission and Stafford, a one-star general at the time, was chosen to command the American side. It meant intensive language training, being followed by the KGB while in the Soviet Union, and lifelong friendships with cosmonauts. The two teams of space travelers even went to Disney World and rode Space Mountain together before going into orbit and joining ships. "We have capture," Stafford radioed in Russian as the Apollo and Soyuz spacecraft hooked up. His Russian counterpart, Alexei Leonov, responded in English: "Well done, Tom, it was a good show. I vote for you."
- IMDb mini biography by: Anonymous

One of the most experienced of the Apollo era astronauts, he flew two Gemini and two Apollo missions. On Gemini 6 he flew with Wally Schirra conducting the first rendezvous of two separate spacecrafts and on Gemini 9 he was the commander with Eugene Cernan rendezvousing with an Agena target vehicle. On Apollo 10 he went to the moon with John Young and Eugene Cernan without landing and flew the Apollo Soyuz Test Project as the commander with Vance Brand and Deke Slayton in 1975 on the last Apollo mission. The lunar module on the Apollo 10 mission was called Snoopy while the command module was called Charlie Brown.

Has two daughters, Dionne and Karin, from his first marriage.

He graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy and volunteered for the Air Force. By the time he got his wings, the Korean War had ended. He attended the Air Force's experimental test pilot school, graduated first in his class, and became an instructor.

Houston, this is Apollo 10. You can tell the world we have arrived. [on reaching a lunar orbit that brought the spacecraft within nine miles of the Moon's surface, quoted in the New York Times, 22 May 1969]