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From: Albuquerque, New Mexico
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posted 02-12-2017 02:02 AM               

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At a quick look — Apollo 15 (Endeavour) 14.5 kms above lunar surface to release Falcon.

On edit: if you want to be really geeky about this you'll know that this, as are all lunar heights, is measured relative to a lunar sphere of 173,8000 metres radius.

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From: Kew, Victoria, Australia
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From: Northampton UK
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From: Albuquerque, New Mexico
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posted 02-12-2017 01:54 PM               

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"Falling to Earth" pages 183 to 184 is a great reference. Apollo 15 at 46,000 feet.

"Falling to Earth" page 184 - "Phew, we were still OK, still three times higher than the mountains around the landing site."

With mountains at 15,000 feet. Does this indicate the Apollo 15 command module came to about 31,000 feet of lunar surface? If so, was this closer than Snoopy on Apollo 10?

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From: Belfast, United Kingdom
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posted 02-12-2017 03:47 PM            

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The Apollo 15 Flight Journal shows that, around 95 hours and 2 minutes GET, the Public Affairs Officer announced that Apollo 15 was about 45,600 feet "above the lunar surface." But shortly after that, and before the orbit was raised by an RCS burn, Apollo 15 flew across the Apennine Mountains, close to where Mount Hadley rises to approximately 15,000 feet.

Exact figures are difficult to calculate because I don't know if the PAO meant above the notional lunar "sea level" or above the actual ground beneath the spacecraft, but it seems reasonable to conclude that Apollo 15 crossed the mountain-tops at an altitude similar to the height of a passenger jet at cruising altitude above the Earth. It also seems reasonable to conclude that Al Worden came closest to the Moon except for the 12 who walked on it.

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From: Northampton UK
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posted 02-12-2017 05:44 PM            

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From Gene Cernan's autobiography "The Last Man on the Moon," page 215, he writes,

Our goal, however, was only to reach another lower orbit that would take us to within less than eight and one-half miles of the surface, and we got there in a hurry.

That means Tom Stafford also went very close to the moon's surface on Apollo 10 and by my very rough maths about the same as Al Worden, but of course Apollo 10 was flying over the sea of Tranquillity, to reconnaissance for the Apollo 11 planned landing, but in the absence of high mountains in that area I concur with Geoffrey that Worden must have been the closest to the moon apart from the moon landers.

Out of interest does anyone know how close Ken Mattingly and Ron Evans got to the moon?

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posted 02-13-2017 03:20 AM               

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The original question was about the closest approach by the command module. The nearest Charlie Brown (Apollo 10) came to the lunar surface was about 111 kms., though, of course, Snoopy went a lot closer.

Casper (Apollo 16) descended to about some 20 kms from the surface and America (Apollo 17) about 27 kms.

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