Posted on 11/03/2009 8:57:44 AM PST by chimera
They say no one remembers No. 2, but the second manned lunar landing was memorable for a number of reasons. First, almost anyone familiar with the Apollo program remembers the launch. Apollo 12 was successfully launched in a rainstorm from Kennedy Space Center on Nov. 14th, 1969. As the Saturn V lifted from the launch pad, the familiar voice of Mission Commander Pete Conrad was heard on the air-to-ground loop playfully exclaiming, “That’s a LOVELY liftoff, that’s not bad at all!”, and indeed for a time it wasn’t. While normal at first, all hell broke loose about 30 seconds into the flight when the spacecraft was struck by lightning. A second strike occurred about 30 seconds after the first. All fuel cells were knocked offline, leaving only battery backup power for the manned spacecraft. The Saturn V booster was not significantly affected by the strikes and continued a nominal powered flight into orbit. EECOM John Aaron at Mission Control correctly diagnosed the problem as essentially a tripped circuit breaker. The fuel cells themselves were not damaged and still able to function once reconnected to the spacecraft electrical distribution busses. The crew was able to restore fuel cell power on the ride up to orbit. Surviving this unprecedented event was the first significant achievement of the flight.
Once in orbit, Command Module Pilot Richard Gordon was able to successfully restore guidance and navigation data (lost when power was disabled) using star sightings. This was the second achievement that allowed the mission to continue.
Ground controllers mulled over the possibility of aborting the lunar phase of the mission while the spacecraft was in Earth orbit. They were not sure if there was “hidden damage” from the lightning strikes that would endanger the crew if they were sent moonward. Eventually, it was decided there would be no more risk proceeding with the lunar mission than there would be in an immediate return to Earth, so the crew was sent on their way to the moon, and history has borne out the correctness of that decision, but at the time it was somewhat of a roll of the dice.
The third achievement was during the lunar landing. Pete Conrad and LM Pilot Alan Bean were able to achieve a pinpoint landing near the unmanned Surveyor 3 spacecraft landed on the moon two years earlier. Accurate landings were necessary for the planned scientific missions later in the program and Apollo 12 demonstrated that accurate landings were possible.
Retrieval of parts from the Surveyor 3 craft was the fourth achievement of the mission. This was the first time man-made artifacts were successfully recovered from the lunar surface that had been placed earlier. Some of these are on display at the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum.
The landing site in the Ocean of Storms yielded a rich harvest of lunar samples. Some of the age determinations of rock samples showed very ancient materials. And, for the only time in the Apollo program, after liftoff from the lunar surface and on the far side of the moon, the LM pilot actually flew the LM spacecraft. Flying the LM was normally the purview of the mission commander, but Pete Conrad allowed his friend Al Bean to man the LM controls for a few minutes while out of comm with mission control.
The crew of Apollo 12 was very special and probably the closest in terms of friendship of all of the Apollo crews. It was an all-Navy crew, with each astronaut holding the rank of Commander at the time the mission flew. Mission Commander Conrad and CM Pilot Gordon were Gemini Program veterans and flew together on Gemini 11. LM Pilot Bean was a first-time space traveler. All three crewmen received a promotion to Navy Captain upon completion of their mission.
Dick Gordon was a Navy test pilot prior to joining the astronaut corps. He flew on Gemini 11 and helped set a then-record altitude of 850 miles above the Earth. He served as backup CM Pilot on Apollo 9, which secured his spot on the prime crew for Apollo 12. A native of Seattle, he currently lives in Sedona, AZ.
LM Pilot Al Bean could rightfully be called the “accidental moonwalker” because he was not originally in the rotation for the prime crew of Apollo 12. The Apollo 9 backup LM Pilot would have had the LM seat for Apollo 12 if not for Fate and tragedy intervening. Marine Major Clifton Curtis (C. C.) Williams, Jr. had originally been assigned this spot, but he died in a crash of his T-38 jet trainer in October, 1967, ironically en route to visit his father who was dying of cancer. This led to Pete Conrad asking for his friend Alan Bean to take the place of Williams on Apollo 12. In honor of his deceased friend and colleague, Al Bean carried the astronaut pin and pilot wings of C. C. Williams to the lunar surface, where they remain today. The mission patch for Apollo 12 also pays tribute to the memory of Williams. There are four bright stars in the area of space shown above the clipper ship (in honor of the Navy crew, and the designation of the Command Module “Yankee Clipper”) and the lunar surface, one star for each crewmember, and the fourth for C. C. Williams:
A fitting tribute to their friend and colleague.
Alan Bean was born in Wheeler, Texas, and lives today in Houston. He is an accomplished artist and paints pictures based on his lunar experiences and imagination. His works are copyrighted so I will simply provide a link to his website if you want to view his work:
Click here for out-of-this-world paintings
His paintings have a Normal Rockwell style but I still like them.
Mission Commander Pete Conrad was one of those rare individuals who both loved his work, the people he worked with, and was loved by those who worked with him. Conrad, of the many NASA astronauts who have so nobly served our nation, could rightly be called the true “Rocket Man”. A veteran of two Gemini missions, he was Apollo 12 Commander, and also flew the Skylab One mission. Some say his efforts on Skylab almost single-handedly saved an entire NASA program, when his crew had to make repairs on the damaged orbital module. Conrad’s self-deprecating humor about his diminutive physical stature and his ebullient personality made him a favorite with his fellow astronauts and the space-watching public. Here is a photo of Pete working at the Surveyor 3 spacecraft during one of the two the Apollo 12 moonwalks
Notice that the Apollo 12 landing site shows the flat topography typical of a mare region. I especially like this image because it shows the marks made by the Surveyor 3 scoop, which are the small trenches at Conrad’s feet, made years earlier by the unmanned vehicle but still pristine when visited by humans. It also shows the two made-made vehicles, Surveyor 3 in the foreground and lunar module “Intrepid” in the background, and of course the human presence in the form of Apollo astronaut Conrad.
A native of Philadelphia, Pete Conrad died in a motorcycle crash in California in July 1999. Of all the words of tribute offered by the many that knew and loved him, perhaps the most moving were by Apollo 11 Mission Commander and “First Man” Neil Armstrong at Conrad’s burial in Arlington Cemetery: “I’m not sure what he’s doing right now but I suspect he’s telling some stories of the old days. Pete was the best man I ever knew. He treated me like a brother.” Here is a picture of the Conrad gravesite in Arlington:
So, take a few moments to remember the achievements of this mission, and our nation in this noble endeavor. Where we have been before, may we once again go.
I loved the episode in “From the Earth to The Moon” that dealt with Apollo 12. Just a complete feel-good episode.
Once they got the guidance platform and other items straightened out, Conrad told Houston that maybe they needed a “little more all-weather testing”. Great flight except for when Al Bean pointed their tv camera into the sun and burned out the electronics. Had to wait until Apollo 14 to get some color tv from the moon.
You’re right. That was a great episode in a truly wonderful series.
There was another glitch at splashdown. They hit a cresting wave at impact and it shook loose a 16 mm film camera in the crew cabin that conked Al Bean (him again!) on the noggin. He was momentarily stunned and it opened a one-inch gash that Conrad had to bandage before they got into their biological isolation garments.
I knew it! It was a fake!
I had the pleasure of meeting Al Bean in September. He’s a very nice unassuming man.
And a lot of people think that the ruined TV camera set the stage for the “faked landings” crowd......when the TV went kaput, NASA had to scramble to have something to show the viewing audience....voila! We will mimic the astronauts on the moon with a simulation here on the earth (in a simulation room somewhere at the JSC.
The 3 major networks never forgave NASA.....
I LOVED the Series “From the Earth to the Moon”. Apollo 12 was my favorite episode. Spider’s is Mr. Peel’s. Loved the dialog they gave to Conrad: “Al Bean, we’re going to the moon, you tag along if you’d like.”
WOW! What a treat!
I was going to post the same thing. What a wonderful mini-series.
Mr. Peel’s favorite is mine too. The other one I liked is Apollo 13 and how the anchor was frozen out for the other reporter who operated with an ambush style.
I get such a kick out of that advice!
Yep.
My favorite episode.
They’re great episodes, too!
I found something completely charming about that episode. I don’t know if it was that they managed to convey that cameraderie effectively, or whether it was the guy who played Alan Bean who carried it.
I had heard Alan Bean interviewed sometime back in the early to mid Seventies, and I remember thinking “Wow, he isn’t working, he is having fun!”
To this day, it wasn’t anything that had to do with the Apollo 12 mission that makes me think of him, it is that interview. What a lucky man, and luckier still never to let it go to his head...
I took a picture of Pete Conrad and others from an earlier flight when they were picked up in the Pacific and brought back to San Diego. They are standing by their capsule
on the elevator of the carrier.
Alan Bean’s immigrant ancestor and 8th great grandfather, was John MacBean a young Highland soldier captured in the battle of Worster in 1652 by Cromwell. He and other POWs
were shipped on the “Sarah & John” to Boston and shortly after John Bean removed to Exeter, New Hampshire. (the Mac was taken off by the clerk on the ship)
John Bean was my 9th great grandfather.
Amazing. From the Scottish highlands to the plains of Texas and then the dust of the Ocean of Storms. Quite a well-travelled family history, I’d say.
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