May is known as the “Flower Moon” because in most areas flowers are plentiful at this time of year. There are other names for this month including “Corn Planting Moon” because this is the time of year that farmers are planting their fields as May marks the end of hard frosts; and “Milk Moon”comes from medieval Europe with cows were moved to summer pastures to provide them with rich nourishment to feed their calves. The Flower Moon was at its fullest on May 7, at 5:45 a.m. central time but had to be viewed prior to that time as the moon was below the horizon at that time. This was the last supermoon of 2020! We saw three supermoons in a row from March till May. A supermoon is when the moon is around 7% bigger and 15% brighter than a typical full moon.

May moons have significant history. May saw Apollo 10’s full “dry run” for the Apollo 11 mission, basically a “lunar landing dress rehearsal” that started with launch on May 18, 1969. Apollo 10 was the second flight of a human crew and the lead-up to Apollo 11 and the first walk on the surface of the moon. The crew consisted of three astronauts. Pictured left to right, are Eugene A. Cernan, lunar module pilot; John W. Young, command module pilot; and Thomas P. Stafford, commander; all experienced astronauts. The image taken a few days before launch with the Apollo 10 space vehicle on the launch pad at Kennedy Space Center, Florida.

The crew of Apollo 10. (Credit: NASA/JSC)

On the fourth day of the mission, Stafford and Cernan took the lunar test module towards the moon within almost 9 miles of the lunar surface. It must have been hard to not just land but the practice module was too heavy to be able to make the ascent back to the core command module. However, the test was a success and led to the success of the Apollo Ascent Apollo 10 lunar module (Credit: NASA) 11 mission in July 1969!