Apollo 10's Moon Return Still Sets the Fastest Human Reentry Speed
In May 1969, Apollo 10 crew Stafford, Young and Cernan achieved the fastest human speed on reentry—36,397 ft/s (about 39,937 km/h)—during their lunar-return trajectory. The record endures because no crewed mission has left Earth orbit since Apollo 17, and subsequent flights have not surpassed that reentry velocity. Artemis plans aim to return humans to the Moon with comparable speeds, but thus far only the uncrewed Artemis I reentry reached about 39,400 km/h, keeping Apollo 10’s speed record intact as a landmark of lunar-flight physics.