Friday, June 12, 2009 |

To mark last month's 40th anniversary of the Apollo X "lunar landing dress rehearsal" mission, the Science Museum in London opened its command module Charlie Brown to visitors.

This was a one-day only opportunity for a close-up look inside the capsule in which astronauts Thomas Stafford, John Young and Gene Cernan flew to the Moon in May 1969, says Douglas Millard, the museum's senior curator, ICT & space technology.

The opening took place on 23 May when exactly four decades earlier that capsule - which is the only example on display outside the USA - had been orbiting the Moon with Young at the controls as Stafford and Cernan manoeuvred lunar module Snoopy to within 8.9km (5.5 miles) of the lunar surface.

The museum expects a wave of interest in its Apollo exhibits in the coming months as NASA prepares to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Neil Armstrong's historic Moon landing, on 20 July.