We Went Back: Apollo 12 and the 2nd Moon landing!
The world had watched, spellbound, as Apollo 11 made mankind’s first landing on the moon in July 1969. Fewer people paid attention when NASA sent its second mission to the moon four months later: Apollo 12, which landed on Nov. 19, 1969 — 55 years ago today.
And that was ironic. Because while NASA’s first visit to the moon was historic, its second mission was arguably more dramatic.
A Rough Start to Apollo 12
NASA’s second moon landing was nearly doomed from the start. Cape Canaveral was rocked by thunderstorms the morning of the launch on Nov. 14. Eager to meet its departure window, NASA decided to launch Apollo 12 anyway.
Apollo 12 launch
Sure enough, the ionized exhaust plume turned the Saturn V rocket into an enormous lighting rod. Apollo 12 was struck by lighting 36.5 seconds after liftoff and then again 15.5 seconds after that, tripping circuits througout the cockpit.
Lighting on the launch pad
As alarms sounded aboard Apollo 12 and in Mission Control in Houston, one controller — 26-year-old engineer John Aaron — remembered from his rigorous training how to instruct the crew to switch a specific electronics control to auxiliary.
John Aaron
Astronaut Alan Bean flipped the switch to restore power. Once in orbit, the crew brought the ship’s fuel cells back online and found everything checked out just fine. They then departed Earth orbit for the moon laughing at their good fortune.
Hijinks on The Lunar Surface
A journalist once had complained to Pete Conrad about what she said were the clearly prepared first words Neil Armstrong had said on the moon: “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” Nope, Conrad had told her. That was all Neil.
Conrad eases down the ladder
When asked to prove it, the famously irreverant Conrad had come up with a wisecrack about his own height (5 feet, 6 inches). Sure enough, Conrad’s first words on the moon were: “Woooooopee! Man, that may have been a small one for Neil, but that’s a long one for me!”
Conrad and Bean went about their chores on the surface with laughs and giggles, dancing and hopping around in the one-sixth gravity on the lunar surface.
Conrad with a bulky power source
They even giggled about Conrad using a hammer to bash a stubborn nuclear power source into a lunar experiment. They totally lost it when they found pinup photos hidden in the checklists NASA had installed on the sleeves of their lunar suits.
Goodbye, Video
Not everybody was as amused as the lunar visitors, however. Public interest in the mission was not nearly what it had been for Apollo 11. And NASA was getting complaints from the public. “Astronaut Conrad gives the impression that he is on a joyride of no significance whatsoever,” one citizen wrote.
To improve upon the murky TV pictures sent back by Apollo 11, NASA sent a color TV camera with Apollo 12. While setting up the camera, however, Bean accidentally pointed it either at the sun or at the sun’s reflection off the lunar lander. The bright light burned out the camera’s lens. So, Boom: No more TV coverage.
Bean walks by the fried color TV camera
The TV networks were stumped at how to visually represent the astronauts’ time on the moon. CBS and ABC brought in two people in spacesuits to try to mimic the audio they were receiving. NBC used marionettes. The national TV audience collectively yawned and turned off their sets.
One big success for Apollo 12 was the fact that Conrad had managed to land just 600 feet away from the unmanned moon probe Surveyor 3, which had landed 2½ years before. On their second moonwalk, Conrad and Bean visited the Surveyor, took pictures and even sliced off a few pieces of it to bring back to NASA scientists in Houston.
The Crew of Apollo 12
Pete Conrad
COMMANDER
Earned an engineering degree from Princeton. Served 10 years as a pilot and test pilot for the Navy before becoming an astronaut in 1962. Flew on Gemini 5 in 1965 and Gemini 11 in 1966 and later commanded the first mission to the Skylab orbital space station.
Richard “Dick” Gordon
COMMAND MODULE PILOT
Earned a degree in chemistry from the University of Washington. Spent nine years as a Navy pilot and test pilot and joined the astronaut corps in 1963. He flew with Conrad on Gemini 11 and was to be commander of Apollo 18, which was canceled.
Conrad, Gordon and Bean, the crew of the Apollo 12
Alan Bean
LUNAR MODULE PILOT
Earned a degree in aeronautical engineering from the University of Texas. He spent eight years as a Navy pilot and test pilot before joining NASA in 1963. This was his first mission. He later commanded the second crewed flight to Skylab in 1973 and then retired to become a painter.
Even when Conrad and Bean returned to their command module — maintained in orbit by Richard Gordon while they had fun on the surface — the fun wasn’t over. Gordon didn’t like all the moon dust they brought back with them, so he ordered them to “Strip down!” Conrad admitted they were “a couple of dirty boogers.”
Timeline of Apollo!
