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Comment by pacetherace | Hacker News Reader

Sorry to correct you. But the first person alone in lunar orbit was John Young during the Apollo 10 mission

While that's true, during Apollo 10 didn't the LEM and CM stay on the same side of the Moon?

The "loneliest" anecdote is based on how far away Michael Collins was from the next closest people. Since the LEM was on the other side of the moon once per orbit, Collins was much further away from other people than John Young got.

I'm unclear on what you are correcting. I didn't state he was the first to do a lunar orbit in his own spacecraft, but he was the first to do it without any other nearby craft. As far as I'm aware, the lunar module and the command module were never actually that far apart during Apollo 10. So while they were separated, the distance between the two was measured in hundreds of miles rather than the thousands of miles that was true during Apollo 11 and the later lunar landings.

Some mission parameters are at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_10#Mission_parameters

The lunar orbit of the LM (Lunar Module) and CSM (Command-Service Module) had a period of 2.15 hours. The interval during which the LM orbited separately from the CSM was 8 hours 10 minutes, or about 3.8 orbits. Thus, at times both craft would have been on the far side of the moon. While the LM was in its lower orbit I don't know how much shorter its orbital period would have been, or whether it "lapped" the CSM during the time between closest approach and redocking.

Young also commanded STS-1, the first shuttle launch mission.

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