The Other Moon Landing of 1969

Perhaps if the color images captured on the Moon by astronaut Alan Bean had been broadcast on television as planned, the general public would have a better memory of the Apollo 12 mission.
Source: Wikipedia Commons

As the New Year progresses deeper into the calendar, voracious readers across the globe will be treated to seemingly endless nostalgia for the Apollo 11 space mission, which first put human footprints on the Moon in July 1969. United States astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin made history fifty years ago when they accomplished this feat, thanks to the tireless work of hundreds of thousands of Americans throughout the aerospace industry.

What many people often forget is there was a second Moon landing in 1969, almost four months to the day after Armstrong and Aldrin touched down on the lunar surface: Apollo 12. On November 19, 1969, Charles “Pete” Conrad and Alan Bean reached the Moon and doubled down on President John F. Kennedy’s promise to achieve history before the end of the decade. In essence, the Space Race with the Soviet Union ended long before the launch of Apollo 12.

While history remembers who finished first in a race, it often overlooks—or even ignores—who finished second. This could not be more true of Apollo 12: The perfect example might be the fact that Apollo 11’s Wikipedia page is locked for editing, while Apollo 12’s entry in the online encyclopedia is not secured.

 Most people probably do not even know Bean’s name, as he was the mere fourth person to walk on the Moon and hardly famous in comparison to other NASA moonwalkers. When he died on May 26, 2018, many Americans may have been surprised to find out who he was.[1]

As the joke goes in the Apollo 13 film, NASA had made going to the Moon “about as exciting as a trip to the Pittsburgh.”[2] After the success of Apollo 11, it really was the Apollo 12 mission that convinced Americans—and the world—that space missions were old news. So, when the fiftieth anniversary celebrations of the first moon landing come rolling in this year, remember also to celebrate Apollo 12—that other moon landing of 1969.

From left to right: Pete Conrad, Dick Gordon, and Al Bean.
Source: Wikimedia Commons

The Crew 

Tom Wolfe opened his famous book The Right Stuff with an anecdote about Pete Conrad, so when Conrad’s “character” did not make it into the Hollywood film version depicting Wolfe’s interpretation of the origins of the American space program, he faded somewhat from the historical consciousness of the American public when it came to readily identifying “famous” astronauts.[3]

Part of the second astronaut group selected by NASA to augment and support the original Mercury Seven astronauts, Conrad flew two Gemini program missions—earning the command of Gemini 11—before making the historic journey to the Moon on Apollo 12 as the mission commander (CMD). He also later commanded Skylab 2, the first manned mission to the first space station. Overall, Conrad was selected for three NASA mission commands, making him the most honored astronaut in U.S. history prior to the Space Shuttle program.

Dick Gordon—a native of Seattle, Washington—was the command module pilot (CMP) on Apollo 12, a member of the third group of NASA astronauts. Conrad and Gordon had been military roommates in the Navy aboard the USS Ranger aircraft carrier, and Gordon was an outstanding pilot in his own right, winning the 1961 Bendix Trophy race from Los Angeles to New York City and setting new speed records in the process.[4]

Bean had been part of the third group of astronauts as well, and after serving as commander of the backup crew for Gemini 10, he was assigned to the Apollo Applications Program to develop new technologies using equipment and scientific data developed and gathered from the Apollo missions.

However, when Clifton “C.C.” Williams—Bean’s pilot on the backup crew for Gemini 10 who had been selected for the backup crew for Apollo 9—was killed in an airplane accident, Conrad requested Bean for his lunar module pilot (LMP) replacement.[5] Conrad had served as Bean’s instructor at the Naval Flight Test School and, suddenly, Bean was on his way to the Moon on the prime crew of Apollo 12.[6]

This mission had the unique distinction of all crew members being active Navy officers and relatively close-knit friends as well, due to prior service together in the military. In contrast to the relatively straight-forward approach to the job displayed by Armstrong, Aldrin, and Michael Collins on Apollo 11, this Apollo 12 group was fun loving and quite engaging with both each other and the public. They even cruised around together in matching gold Corvettes.

From left to right: Conrad, Gordon, and Bean.
Source: www.hq.nasa.gov

Conrad was known for his jocularity, and Bean’s humble disposition balanced out the teamwork dynamic quite effectively.[7] Gordon’s own adaptability and flexibility leveled out the trio nicely, creating a crew with the flight expertise and professional focus to succeed—and the personal disposition to have fun at the same time. While the Apollo 11 crew members were “amiable strangers,” this group was comprised of best friends, overjoyed to be going to the Moon together.[8]

The Mission

The original prime crews for Apollo 11, Apollo 12, and Apollo 13 all trained to land at the Sea of Tranquility site, where Armstrong and Aldrin successfully landed on July 20, 1969.[9] The plan had been to give NASA three chances at that first landing before the decade ended, in order to meet Kennedy’s stated goal. However, when Apollo 11 achieved the primary objective on the first attempt, the landing site for Apollo 12 changed to the Ocean of Storms, where the unmanned Surveyor 3 probe landed in 1967.[10]

Conrad, who had dubbed this landing site “Pete’s Parking Lot” during training, managed to land the lunar module—nicknamed Intrepid—within 600 feet of the Surveyor probe, proving that precise landings were possible on other worlds. Bean and Conrad were able to walk with ease to Surveyor 3 and return to Earth with some scientific data and instruments from the probe for further study back home.

The moonwalkers also performed two extra-vehicular activities (EVAs) totaling almost eight hours on the lunar surface. In contrast to Armstrong’s famous—and serious—proclamation upon placing his footprint in the moon dust, Conrad’s first words were a bit more jubilant: “Whoopie! Man, that may have been a small one for Neil, but that’s a long one for me.”[11] Conrad was one of the shorter astronauts, making the distance from the final rung on the lunar module’s ladder seem quite the leap for him in comparison to the taller Armstrong. His colorful expression was also a stark contrast to the seriousness his predecessor had exhibited on the Moon.

As the CMP, Gordon remained in lunar orbit alone for a day and a half aboard the command module, nicknamed Yankee Clipper. Overall, Gordon was in orbit around the moon for almost 90 hours as the three-person crew spent another day in orbit after the landing to take pictures of the lunar surface for future missions and scientific exploration.

However, none of this would have been possible if not for Bean’s cool-headed reaction to the Apollo 12 spacecraft’s electrical systems failure during the launch. When an electrical surge caused by a nearby thunderstorm took out batteries and fuel cells, both engineer John Aaron in Mission Control and Bean on the spacecraft remained calm. First Aaron and then Bean remembered the “SCE to Aux” switch which would remedy such a predicament and restore power to the spacecraft.[12] Now, when you see the T-shirt that says, “Keep Calm and Set SCE to Aux,” you will know what it means: It saved Apollo 12 from having to abort its mission.

Source: Sam Fleischer.

The one thing Bean did not do right, though, was the handling of the color television camera, an improvement over the black-and-white Westinghouse model that Apollo 11 took to the Moon.[13] In the process of getting the new technology set up for a live TV broadcast back to Earth, Bean inadvertently turned the lens into direct sunlight and damaged the camera beyond repair.

Perhaps if the color images from the Moon had been broadcast as planned, the general public would have a better memory of the Apollo 12 mission. However, if that was the one error made on this moon landing, clearly the public did not see it as disastrous.

The Aftermath 

Bean actually had another mishap during the water landing, as a different camera came loose in the command module and conked him in the head; he would need six stitches on the USS Hornet during quarantine as well as treatment for a mild concussion. However, President Richard M. Nixon instantly promoted the entire crew to the Navy rank of Captain after Apollo 12 successfully splashed down in the Pacific Ocean, putting smiles on the entire crew.[14]

Sadly, Gordon would never fly in space again. He served on the backup crew for Apollo 15, and if Apollo 18 had not been eliminated due to Congressional budget cuts to the space program, Gordon would have walked on the Moon himself as the commander of that mission.[15] He did work on the design of the Space Shuttle, however, leaving his mark on NASA’s next-generation, reusable spacecraft that flew numerous missions in Earth orbit.

Both Conrad and Bean would return to space for long-duration flight, though: On Skylab 2, Conrad spent 28 days in space, a record at that time which defied belief. Without the flights to the Moon, scientists never would have had the confidence to put a person in space for four weeks. Bean then commanded Skylab 3, breaking the space endurance record and pushing it to a ridiculous 59 days—more than twice as long as Skylab 2’s record.

In the end, though, Apollo 12’s mission remains somewhat of an afterthought, generally, due its position between Apollo 11’s historical success which the entire world watched and Apollo 13’s disastrous notoriety (and subsequent Hollywood fame) as the planet collectively held its breath hoping for the safety of the Americans on board.

Bean captured this vivid color image of the lunar surface with lander.
Source: Wikipedia Commons.

The Apollo 12 mission had its potential pitfalls, but the crew’s close-knit relationship and excellent preparation meant NASA had chosen wisely in both personnel and parameters for the flight—so much that going to the Moon became an afterthought in the eyes of the American public in the early 1970s.

Bean, Conrad, and Gordon never became international icons like Armstrong or even Aldrin and Collins: They were just the guys next door you would want to have a beer with and share stories about work after a long day at the office. Their personalities connected the public to the Moon landings in a way the “pedestal” crew of Apollo 11 never could, especially since Aldrin, Armstrong, and Collins never flew in space again and would be celebrated forever in cemented American exceptionalism—as reinforced symbolically today by the locked Wikipedia page.

Perhaps Bean phrased it best, when trying to put into words what the Apollo 12 mission meant to him in retrospect:

In the end, what I have left from my walk in the Ocean of Storms are memories—almost like it was a trip to the seashore or a drive in the country. They mix together in a constant stream of thoughts and images that come and go, like all memories do. The most precious things I brought back with me were the same things I left with: my best friends. I realized when you go through any endeavor, any journey—whether across town or to the Moon and back—all that matters is that you share the experience with people that you love. That's what makes life special: Because, ultimately, that's all there is. That's really all there is.[16] 

There is a lesson in those words of wisdom for all of us, almost fifty years now after the Apollo 12 crew flew to the Moon. Bean understood that he was not special; he recognized he was fortunate and not just because fate chose him for such an endeavor. Bean knew that what made the journey special was the fact he got to share it—and not just with all of the world.

As the United States, and the world, celebrates the fiftieth anniversary of one of the greatest moments in human history, remember what the somewhat-forgotten Apollo 12 still should stand for in our collective American memory: friendship, laughter, and love in the face of the adversity that comes with any meaningful human adventure worth our while. History is replete with such adventures, if not with colorful characters like Bean, Conrad, and Gordon.

About the author: Sam Fleischer is a second-year Ph.D. student working under Dr. Matthew Sutton in field of modern American history. His research focuses on the Cold War’s political impact on American culture and society in the latter half of the twentieth century.

[1]Richard Goldstein, “Alan Bean, 4th Person to Walk on the Moon, Dies at 86,” The New York Times, May 26, 2018.

[2]William Broyles, Jr. and Al Reinert, Apollo 13, directed by Ron Howard (1995; Universal Pictures).

[3]Tom Wolfe, The Right Stuff (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1979), 1-4.

[4]“Astronaut Bio: Richard F. Gordon, Jr., (Captain, USN, Ret.),” NASA, August 1985, accessed January 12, 2019, https://web.archive.org/web/20060103235254/http://vesuvius.jsc.nasa.gov/er/seh/gordon.htm.

[5]“Williams Wanted To Be First on Moon,” The Evening Independent (St. Petersburg, FL), October 6, 1967.

[6]“Alan L. Bean Oral History,” NASA, June 23, 1998, accessed December 28, 2018, https://www.jsc.nasa.gov/history/oral_histories/BeanAL/BeanAL_6-23-98.htm.

[7]Christopher S. Wren, “Pete Conrad, 69, the Third Man to Walk on the Moon, Dies After a Motorcycle Crash,” The New York Times, July 10, 1999.

[8]James R. Hansen, First Man: The Life of Neil A. Armstrong (New York: Simon & Shuster, 2005), 359.

[9]Alan Bean, In the Shadow of the Moon, directed by Christopher Riley and David Sington (2007; Vertigo Films).

[10]Christopher Immer, Philip Metzger, Paul E. Hintze, Andrew Nick, and Ryan Horan. “Apollo 12 Lunar Module Exhaust Plume Impingement on Lunar Surveyor III,” Icarus 211, no. 2 (2011): 1089-1102.

[11]Wren.

[12]Stephen Garber and Glen Swanson, “Apollo 12 Technical Air-to-Ground Transcript,” NASA, accessed December 29, 2018, https://www.hq.nasa.gov/alsj/a12/AS12_TEC.PDF.

[13]James E. O’Neal, “Equipping Apollo for Color Television,” TV Technology, July 21, 2009, accessed January 3, 2019, https://www.tvtechnology.com/news/equipping-apollo-for-color-television.

[14]Goldstein, “Alan Bean, 4th Person to Walk on the Moon, Dies at 86.”

[15]Goldstein, “Richard Gordon, Astronaut Who Reached for Moon and Very Nearly Made It, Dies at 88,” The New York Times, November 7, 2017.

[16]From the Earth to the Moon, Episode 7, “That’s All There Is,” directed by Jon Turteltaub, aired April 26, 1998, HBO.