A U.S. Navy <i>Sea King</i> helicopter arrives to recover the <i>Apollo 10</i> astronauts, seen entering a life raft, as the Command Module "Charlie Brown" floats in the South Pacific. U.S. Navy underwater demolition team swimmers assist in the recovery operations. The splashdown occurred at 11:53h, 26 May 1969, about 660 km (400 mi) east of American Samoa. Note that in this photo the divers have attached a flotation collar to the spacecraft.<br> The recovery helicopter was the Sikorsky SH-3D <i>Sea King</i> helicopter no. "66" (BuNo 152711) of helicopter anti-submarine squadron HS-4 <i>Black Knights</i>. From late 1968 through the spring of 1970, the <i>Black Knights</i> of HS-4 participated in and pioneered techniques for the Apollo capsule recoveries. HS-4 was on scene for Apollo missions 8, 10, 11, 12, and 13.  The helicopter's flight number was changed from "66" to "740", as after the <i>Apollo 11</i> recovery the U.S. Navy had switched to a three number squadron designator - but the helicopter was repainted with the number "66" for each recovery thereafter for public relations reasons. The <i>Sea King</i> BuNo. 152711 could not be preserved, as it crashed on 4 June 1975 on a training flight out Imperial Beach (California, USA). Although the crew was rescued the pilot died later of his injuries. The wreck sank to a depth of ca. 700 m.
NASA
This image or video was catalogued by Johnson Space Center of the United States <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NASA" class="extiw" title="w:NASA">National Aeronautics and Space Administration</a> (NASA) under <b>Photo ID:</b> <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://images.nasa.gov/search?q=GPN-2000-001143&amp;page=1&amp;media=image,video,audio&amp;yearStart=1920&amp;yearEnd=2023">GPN-2000-001143</a> and <b>Alternate ID:</b> <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://images.nasa.gov/search?q=S69-21036&amp;page=1&amp;media=image,video,audio&amp;yearStart=1920&amp;yearEnd=2023">S69-21036</a>.