Apollo 12, a tale compiled from several texts at NASA. 2019

COUNTDOWN

In November 1969, American astronauts prepared to embark on the second mission to land humans on the Moon. Building on the success of the first Moon landing, Apollo 12’s mission called for making a pinpoint landing in the Ocean of Storms and conducting two spacewalks during a much longer stay on the lunar surface. The precision landing would enable the astronauts to visit and examine a robotic spacecraft that landed on the Moon two and a half years earlier. While the six-day countdown proceeded, the astronauts wrapped up their training for the mission.

The countdown for Apollo 12 began on Nov. 8, 1969, aiming for launch on Nov. 14. Controllers in Firing Room 2 of the Launch Control Center at Kennedy Space Center’s (KSC) Launch Complex 39 monitored events as engineers readied the Saturn V rocket and the Apollo spacecraft for flight. The prime crew of Commander Charles “Pete” Conrad, Command Module Pilot (CMP) Richard F. Gordon, and Lunar Module Pilot (LMP) Alan L. Bean completed their final runs in the spacecraft simulators and rehearsed walking in the simulated lunar gravity aboard KC-135 aircraft parabolic flights. Their backups David R. Scott, Alfred M. Worden, and James B. Irwin also participated in the training, with Scott completing several flights in the Lunar Landing Training Vehicle to rehearse flying the final few hundred feet to the lunar surface. The crews also received their final geology briefings from geologist-astronaut Harrison H. “Jack” Schmitt and astronaut Edward G. Gibson, the Capsule Communicator in Mission Control during the lunar surface excursions. The astronauts maintained their flying skills using T-38 Talon supersonic training aircraft.

NASA announced on Nov. 5 that Apollo Spacecraft Program Manager James A. McDivitt decided that Apollo 12 will carry a color TV camera in the Lunar Module (LM) to the surface. Conrad and Bean will place the camera, built by Westinghouse, on the lunar surface to return images during their two 3.5-hour Moon walks. The camera’s improved image quality should return better video than that returned by the black-and-white camera deployed on the lunar surface during the Apollo 11 mission and also minimize the blurring caused by astronaut movement. Engineers refurbished the camera that flew inside the Apollo 10 Command Module in May 1969 for its new role on the lunar surface during Apollo 12.

On Nov. 5, NASA announced that after a careful review of the lunar samples returned by the Apollo 11 astronauts revealed no evidence of any lunar microorganisms, the Apollo 12 astronauts will not be required to wear the bulky Biological Isolation Garments (BIGs) during recovery operations in the Pacific Ocean. For Apollo 11, the BIGs constituted an element of the overall planetary back-contamination prevention protocol put in place in the remote possibility that the astronauts or the samples might harbor microorganisms potentially harmful to terrestrial life. The crew, however, found the suits uncomfortable as they provided limited ventilation, leading to fogging of the visor that limited their visibility. For Apollo 12, assuming their health status at splashdown is satisfactory, after splashdown the astronauts will don fresh flight suits as well as oral-nasal masks, with the BIGs available in the contingency of an unexplained crew illness. Recovery procedures from then on will essentially repeat those performed after Apollo 11, with a helicopter hoisting the crew from the sea and ferrying them to the prime recovery ship, the USS Hornet (CVS-12). Once on the carrier, the astronauts will walk a few steps to the waiting Mobile Quarantine Facility in which they will be quarantined with a flight surgeon and an engineer until their arrival back at the Lunar Receiving Laboratory at the Manned Spacecraft Center, now the Johnson Space Center in Houston. As after the first Moon landing mission, the Apollo 12 astronauts will remain in quarantine for a total of 21 days after leaving the lunar surface.

Looking beyond Apollo 12, the crew of the next planned Moon landing mission, Apollo 13, busied itself with training activities. The prime crew consisted of Commander James A. Lovell, CMP Thomas K. Mattingly, and LMP Fred W. Haise, backed up by John W. Young, Jack L. Swigert, and Charles M. Duke. At MSC, Lovell tested his spacesuit’s pressure integrity in a vacuum chamber in the Space Environment Simulation Laboratory (SESL). The astronauts practiced deploying the Apollo Lunar Surface Experiment Package (ALSEP), a suite of science equipment to be left on the lunar surface. On Nov. 11, Lovell, Haise, Young, and Duke travelled to Kilbourne Hole, New Mexico, for a one-day geology field trip, accompanied by several geologists. In the Manned Spacecraft Operations Building at KSC, workers continued to prepare the Apollo 13 spacecraft. They removed the Command and Service Module (CSM) from the vacuum chamber and installed the landing legs on the LM, in preparation for stacking the spacecraft onto the Saturn V rocket in early December.

LAUNCH, JOURNEY TO THE MOON

The United States was ready to send its second team of astronauts, Commander Charles “Pete” Conrad, Command Module Pilot (CMP) Richard F. Gordon, and Lunar Module Pilot (LMP) Alan L. Bean, on a Moon landing mission. The months of training since they were assigned as the Apollo 12 crew in April 1969 were behind them, and now launch day had arrived. The goal of the first mission was to prove that a human landing on the Moon could be accomplished. Apollo 12 was more ambitious, aiming for a pinpoint landing in the Ocean of Storms and completing two Extravehicular Activities (EVAs) or spacewalks on the lunar surface during a longer stay of 31.5 hours. An added bonus of the pinpoint landing involved a visit to Surveyor 3, a robotic spacecraft that had been on the Moon since April 1967. Scientists and engineers eagerly awaited the astronauts returning pieces of the spacecraft to better understand the effects of the extended stay under lunar conditions.

The countdown for the second Moon landing mission continued smoothly until technicians began loading liquid hydrogen into the Apollo spacecraft’s Service Module (SM) fuel cell reactant tank. The tank’s insulation was damaged and wouldn’t hold the required supercold temperatures. Managers decided to hold the countdown while the tank was replaced with the one from the Apollo 13 SM. The repair completed, the countdown continued without further issues. Both President Richard M. Nixon, accompanied by First Lady Pat Nixon, NASA Administrator Thomas O. Paine, and astronaut Frank Borman, as well as Vice President Spiro T. Agnew, accompanied by Apollo 8 astronauts James A. Lovell and William A. Anders (since August 1969, the Executive Secretary of the National Space Council chaired by Agnew), attended the Apollo 12 launch – Nixon’s presence marking the first time a sitting President attended a human spaceflight launch.

The astronauts’ day began with a 6 AM wake-up call from Chief of the Astronaut Office Thomas P. Stafford. They enjoyed the traditional prelaunch breakfast with Stafford, Apollo Spacecraft Program Manager James A. McDivitt, backup LMP James B. Irwin, and Charles J. “Chuck” Tringali, the leader of the crew support team, as well as an unofficial crew mascot named “Irving,” a stuffed gorilla dressed in a smock and hard hat. After donning their spacesuits, the crewmembers rode the Astrovan to Launch Pad 39A. Workers in the White Room assisted them into their seats in the Command Module (CM) Yankee Clipper, Conrad into the left hand couch, Bean into the right, and finally Gordon into the middle. After the pad workers closed the hatch to the capsule, the astronauts settled in for the final two trouble-free hours of the countdown.

Lift off came precisely at 11:22 AM EST on Nov. 14, 1969, with the Saturn V launching Apollo 12 into the dark and rainy morning sky. Engineers in KSC’s Firing Room 2 who had managed the countdown handed over control of the flight to the Mission Control Center (MCC) at the Manned Spacecraft Center (MSC), now the Johnson Space Center in Houston, as soon as the rocket cleared the launch tower. In MCC, the Gold Team led by Flight Director Gerald D. “Gerry” Griffin took over control of the mission. The Capcom, or capsule communicator, the astronaut in MCC who spoke directly with the crew, during launch was Gerald P. “Jerry” Carr. Apollo 11 astronauts Neil A. Armstrong and Edwin E. “Buzz” Aldrin watched the launch from the MCC Visitors Gallery. The flight proceeded normally for the first 36 seconds, with Conrad even commenting that, “It’s a lovely liftoff. It’s not bad at all,” when everything went haywire. With Apollo 12 at about 6,600 feet altitude and flying through clouds, observers on the ground noted lightning striking the launch pad. Onboard the spacecraft, Conrad saw a bright flash, followed by many of the spacecraft’s electronics going offline, causing the three power-generating fuel cells to go offline. Fortunately, the Saturn V rocket that was guiding the launch was unaffected and continued to operate normally. In Mission Control, data on controllers’ displays turned to gibberish.

A second event 52 seconds into the flight caused the spacecraft guidance navigation system to go offline. Flight Director Griffin turned to the Electrical, Environmental, and Communications (EECOM) console, staffed by a young engineer named John W. Aaron, for answers and solutions. Aaron monitored the spacecraft’s systems through the two incidents, especially when his data display went from normal to garbled, and remembering a test a year earlier during which he saw similar signals, he correctly deduced that the spacecraft’s Signal Conditioning Equipment (SCE) must have suffered some unknown upset and went offline. The simple solution to restoring it to normal function involved moving a seldom-used switch from its Normal to its Auxiliary position. He informed Griffin, who instructed Carr to make the call up to the crew. Bean recalled that the switch was located on his panel and carried out the requested action. Several seconds later, Aaron reported seeing good data on his screen. His quick action saved the launch from the results of what turned out to be lightning striking the rocket twice. Once Conrad understood the cause of the excitement, he radioed to Houston, “I think we need to do a little more all-weather testing.” Relive the excitement of the launch and the lightning strikes here.

The rest of the ascent continued without incident and 11 and a half minutes after liftoff, Apollo 12 was in a near-circular 118-by-115-mile orbit around the Earth. For the next two and a half hours, as the Apollo spacecraft still attached to its S-IVB third stage orbited the Earth, the astronauts and MCC verified that all systems were functioning properly following the lightning strikes. Carr then called up to the crew, “The good word is you’re Go for TLI,” the Trans Lunar Injection, the second burn of the third stage engine to send them on their way to the Moon. In his characteristic fashion, Conrad replied, “Hoop-ee-doo! We’re ready! We didn’t expect anything else!” The S-IVB’s single J-2 engine fired for 5 minutes and 44 seconds, increasing Apollo 12 speed to 24,145 miles per hour, fast enough to escape Earth’s gravity.

The next major event, the separation of the Command and Service Module (CSM) Yankee Clipper from the S-IVB stage, took place about 25 minutes later, by which point Apollo 12 had reached an altitude of 4,300 miles. Gordon turned Yankee Clipper around and slowly guided it to a docking with the LM Intrepid still attached to the top of the S-IVB. Conrad commented during the maneuver, “I got an awful pretty looking Intrepid sitting out the window here, gang. We'll go get her.” The astronauts turned on the color TV camera, providing a detailed view as they approached Intrepid. After the docking, the crew pressurized the LM before Gordon backed away from the third stage, extracting the LM in the process, and completing the Transposition and Docking maneuver. Apollo 12 had now reached an altitude of about 13,000 miles, and the crew described the apparent size of the Earth as that of a basketball. The S-IVB performed an evasive maneuver to ensure it wouldn’t interfere with Apollo 12 as it made its way to the Moon. A second maneuver about 20 minutes later sent the S-IVB toward the trailing edge of the Moon and into solar orbit.

The astronauts settled down for their first meal since launch, ham sandwiches, and finally removed their suits while in Mission Control Flight Director M.P. “Pete” Frank’s Orange Team took over the consoles, with astronaut Edward G. Gibson the new Capcom. Because of the accuracy of the S-IVB’s TLI burn, controllers decided to cancel the first mid-course correction (MCC-1) maneuver. Conrad and Bean opened the hatches to the LM to conduct their first inspection and found Intrepid to be very tidy. By the time they finished the LM inspection, they described the Earth as the size of a volleyball. Gordon put the stack in PTC mode. Before turning in for their first night’s sleep in space, Conrad requested that the ground play back for them the tape of their conversations during the launch. Flight Director Clifford E. “Cliff” Charlesworth and his Green Team of controllers took over, with Don Lind as the new Capcom. By the time they went to sleep, they had traveled out to more than 90,000 miles.

While the crew slept another shift change in Mission Control brought Flight Director Griffin back to his console, this time joined by Paul J. Weitz as the new Capcom. By the time the astronauts awoke to start their first full day in space, their distance from Earth had increased to about 125,000 miles. After they finished breakfast, they passed the halfway point on their journey to the Moon, an equidistant 129,947 miles from both the Earth and the Moon. They turned on the color TV to show viewers a midcourse correction maneuver (MCC-2), an 8.8-second firing of the SM’s Service Propulsion System (SPS) engine, to reduce the low point of their approach to the Moon from 822 miles to 69 miles, the correct altitude for the Lunar Orbit Insertion (LOI) burn. The rest of the day was quiet, with the crew monitoring spacecraft systems. Conrad radioed down that the Earth now appeared about the size of a golf ball held at arm’s length. By the time they settled down for their second sleep period of the mission, they had reached a distance of more than 165,000 miles from Earth.

At crew wake up for flight day 3, Apollo 12 had reached a distance of 185,000 miles from Earth and continued slowing as Earth’s gravity maintained its pull on them. The astronauts spent the morning with Capcom Weitz calling up some news and sports scores while they ate breakfast, followed by an exchange over whether a day-old can of tuna spread was still good to eat (the consensus was not). Weitz also informed the crew that since their trajectory was still so precise, Mission Control decided to cancel the third MCC maneuver. As Apollo 12 approached the Moon, the astronauts reported that as they flew out in front of it, they could see less and less of it as a greater portion of the Moon entered into darkness. The astronauts provided a live TV broadcast showing them opening the hatches to the LM Intrepid to begin a more thorough checkout of that vehicle. In the attitude that provided optimal lighting for the TV broadcast, the crew could see the Earth out the left hand window of the CM, the Sun shining through the center window, and the Moon out the right hand window. During the telecast, they provided viewers with excellent shots of the crescent Earth and Moon, now appearing about the same size. After they settled in for the night, Apollo 12 crossed into the Moon’s gravitational sphere of influence and began to accelerate toward its destination.

The Apollo 12 astronauts awoke for their fourth mission day to find themselves a mere 15,671 miles from the Moon and still accelerating. They provided ever increasingly detailed descriptions of the Moon as its apparent size grew larger and larger. Flight Director Glynn S. Lunney decided that the velocity change that would have been accomplished by MCC-4 was so minor that it would be incorporated into the LOI burn. As they slipped into the Moon’s shadow, they were able to observe the solar corona. As they continued to accelerate toward the Moon, they oriented their spacecraft into the correct attitude for the LOI maneuver. Shortly after, as previous missions had done before them, Apollo 12 sailed behind the Moon and all contact with Earth was cut off. Thirteen minutes later, they fired the SPS engine for the six-minute Lunar Orbit Insertion-1 (LOI-1) burn, reducing Apollo 12’s velocity to allow it to enter into an elliptical 194-by-72-mile orbit around the Moon. Back in Houston, mission controllers and managers anxiously awaited the reacquisition of signal with Apollo 12 – if the engine fired successfully, they would receive the signal after 32 minutes; if it didn’t fire, that signal would arrive 7 minutes earlier.

ON THE MOON

Shortly after re-emerging from the backside of the Moon after entering lunar orbit, the Apollo 12 astronauts turned on their color TV camera and treated viewers on the ground to a 33-minute guided tour of the surface as they made their first pass across the Moon’s front side. Commander Charles “Pete” Conrad, Command Module Pilot (CMP) Richard F. Gordon, and Lunar Module Pilot (LMP) Alan L. Bean excitedly described the lunar features as they flew over them for the first time, right up to the terminator when it became too dark for the TV camera. Conrad commented that even in darkness they could make out features on the Moon as well as on their Lunar Module (LM) Intrepid thanks to Earthshine. They then settled down to a nice meal, accompanied by some music they brought along before going behind the Moon to start their second orbit.

After an uneventful second pass on the front side, Apollo 12 disappeared behind the Moon again. During the backside pass, the crew fired the Service Module’s Service Propulsion System (SPS) engine for 17 seconds to change their orbit to a more circular 76-by-62 miles. In preparation for upcoming activities, the astronauts pressurized the LM during the third revolution and opened the hatches just before disappearing behind the Moon to begin their fourth revolution. Conrad and Bean reactivated Intrepid to complete communications checks with Gordon in the Command Module Yankee Clipper. The checks complete, Conrad and Bean returned to Yankee Clipper and deactivated Intrepid, closing the hatches between the two spacecraft. They settled down to dinner as they went around the backside of the Moon to start their fifth revolution, and then began their first night’s sleep in lunar orbit.

To awaken the crew, Mission Control radioed up Reveille during the spacecraft’s ninth revolution around the Moon, just prior to loss of signal. One early task for the day once they returned to the Moon’s front side included taking photographs of the Fra Mauro highlands area, the proposed landing site for Apollo 13. Then Conrad and Bean donned their spacesuits and began preparations to enter and reactivate the LM in preparation for the separation and landing. As an important task in that preparation, they extended and locked Intrepid’s landing legs. Undocking and separation of Intrepid from Yankee Clipper occurred on the 13th revolution, with Gordon providing color TV of the event. Gordon fired Yankee Clipper’s Reaction Control System thrusters to separate from Intrepid, then while behind the Moon, Conrad and Bean fired the LM’s Descent Propulsion System (DPS) engine for 29 seconds to complete the Descent Orbit Insertion (DOI) maneuver to lower the low point of Intrepid’s orbit to 9.3 miles. They had a beautiful view of Earthrise as they came around to the Moon’s front side on the 14th orbit.

In Mission Control, the Visitors Gallery began to fill with dignitaries, including NASA Administrator Thomas O. Paine and his wife Barbara, Deputy Administrator appointee George M. Low, Associate Administrator for Manned Space Flight George E. Mueller, Director of the Marshall Space Flight Center Werhner von Braun, and astronauts Neil A. Armstrong, Edwin E. “Buzz” Aldrin, and Frank Borman. Exactly half a revolution after the DOI maneuver, Intrepid’s DPS began the 11-minute Powered Descent Initiation (PDI) burn to drop it from orbit all the way to the landing in the Ocean of Storms. At the start of the burn, Intrepid was 300 miles from the landing site, with the DPS engine initially at 10 percent thrust then brought up to 93 percent thrust after 26 seconds. With Bean providing updates from the guidance computer, Conrad skillfully piloted Intrepid to a smooth landing just northwest of Surveyor Crater, and as they learned later, only 538 feet from Surveyor 3, a robotic spacecraft that had landed there in April 1967. Without much fanfare, Conrad and Bean completed the postlanding checklist, although Bean allowed himself a little exuberant “Good landing, Pete! Outstanding, man! Beautiful!” Conrad radioed to Mission Control, “Okay, we’re in hot shape, Houston. We’re in real good shape!” With the landing of Apollo 12, Conrad and Bean doubled the number of humans to have visited the Moon.

Gordon, who listened to the landing on the radio, called down to congratulate Conrad and Bean on the successful touchdown. Conrad remarked that their site appeared to be dustier than the Apollo 11 landing point, leading to an IFR (Instrument Flight Rules) landing, meaning in the final stages he lost visibility and flew strictly by instruments. Capcom Gerald P. “Jerry” Carr radioed that since Intrepid’s systems were functioning normally, they were given the go to stay on the surface, but as part of normal procedures Conrad and Bean prepared for an emergency takeoff, just in case. Once those activities were completed, they had a chance to look out the windows, with Bean exclaiming, “Holy cran, it’s beautiful out here!” Conrad replied, “It sure is; it’s something else,” later adding, “Man! I can’t wait to get outside!” They photographed the landing area from inside the LM and provided a description to eager geologists on the ground. The very low Sun angle made distinguishing detailed features difficult. Bean also remarked how they enjoyed the low lunar one-sixth g, even in the confined quarters of the LM. After grabbing a meal and powering down the LM to conserve power, Conrad and Bean began preparations for their first Extravehicular Activity (EVA) or surface spacewalk. During his next pass over the landing site on rev 16, Gordon was able to spot Intrepid and Surveyor 3 on the surface using a 28-power sextant, providing an accurate description of the LM’s location northwest of Surveyor Crater.

Conrad and Bean donned their Portable Life Support System (PLSS) backpacks that provided oxygen and communications while they were on the surface and put on and locked their helmets and gloves. They depressurized the LM, opened the hatch, and Conrad backed out onto the porch and slowly climbed down the ladder. Halfway down, he pulled a lanyard that deployed the Modular Equipment Stowage Assembly (MESA) on the side of the LM’s descent stage. Located on the MESA, a color TV camera automatically activated, giving viewers around the world an image of Conrad on the LM ladder. After he jumped from the bottom rung onto the footpad, Conrad exclaimed, “Whoopee! Man, that may have been a small one for Neil, but that’s a long one for me,” in reference to Armstrong’s famous words as he took humanity’s first step on the lunar surface and Conrad’s shorter stature. As he stepped off the pad, he remarked, “Oooh is that soft and queasy.” After taking a few tentative steps, Conrad informed everyone that he could see Surveyor 3 sitting inside the crater. He proceeded to collect the contingency sample – in case they had to leave quickly due to an emergency, geologists would at least have a small sample from the Ocean of Storms.

Bean joined Conrad on the surface, and they both acclimated rapidly to working in one-sixth g. Conrad set up the S-band antenna for communications with Earth, but while setting up the TV camera, Bean accidentally pointed it at the Sun and damaged the vidicon tube, ending the live TV transmission from the Moon. Bean deployed the Solar Wind Collector (SWC), a Swiss experiment that collected particles from the solar wind. Conrad and Bean set up the American flag, but the horizontal crossbar meant to keep the flag unfurled didn’t latch, leaving the flag somewhat limp unless one of the astronauts held it up by a corner. Conrad took a series of panoramic photos while Bean photographed the LM then they began the primary task of the first EVA – setting up the various instruments of the Apollo Lunar Surface Experiment Package (ALSEP). The LM had carried the experiments to the Moon stowed in the Scientific Equipment (SEQ) bay, from where Conrad and Bean unstowed them and carried them to their deployment location about 430 feet to the northwest of Intrepid.

For the next hour, Bean and Conrad explored the area around the ALSEP site, in particular visiting and photographing Head Crater, a large mound of undetermined origin, and Middle Crescent Crater, a 1,000-foot diameter crater northwest of the ALSEP station and the furthest point of the EVA1 traverse. Because their suit consumables remained adequate, Mission Control extended the EVA by 30 minutes, providing them extra time to explore and collect rock and soil samples before heading back toward Intrepid. Back at Intrepid, Bean collected a core sample and they both loaded their samples into a Sample Return Container (SRC) or rock box for transfer up to the cabin. They remarked on several occasions how the lunar dust clung to everything, their suits and equipment, and as Conrad quipped earlier in the EVA, “We’re going to be a couple of dirty boogers.” Lunar dust was a problem for all Apollo astronauts and will pose a challenge for future lunar explorers.

First Bean climbed up the ladder after Conrad tried to brush as much dust from his suit as possible. Once inside the cabin, Bean kicked out a trash bag and worked with Conrad to haul up a camera bag and the filled SRC using a lanyard system. Conrad followed up the ladder and once both crewmembers were inside Intrepid they closed the hatch and repressurized the cabin. Their first EVA lasted 3 hours and 56 minutes. They removed their helmets and gloves and began recharging their PLSS backpacks. Meanwhile, Gordon in Yankee Clipper performed a plane change maneuver during revolution 19, the first time a solo crewmember completed a burn of the SPS. Because Yankee Clipper’s orbit precessed, or moved westward over time, the maneuver realigned it for the rendezvous with Intrepid the following day. Conrad and Bean, after a debrief of EVA1 with Capcom Edward G. Gibson, grabbed a quick dinner, set up hammocks in Intrepid, and went to sleep.

After a short night’s rest, neither crewmember getting more than four or five hours of sleep, Conrad and Bean prepared to go outside for their second EVA. Following a quick breakfast and a discussion with Gibson to review the plans for this traverse, they donned their helmets and gloves and depressurized Intrepid. Repeating the steps of the previous day, first Conrad and then Bean descended the ladder to the surface. As their first task, they cut the cable to the failed TV camera and placed it in a bag for return to Houston for postflight analysis. Next Conrad walked to the ALSEP to inspect one of the instruments, his footsteps picked up by the seismometer they deployed during EVA1. Both then headed toward Head Crater to the west of Intrepid, where Conrad rolled two rocks down into the crater, the vibrations caused by this action captured by the seismometer. On the way to their next station, Bench Crater, they stopped briefly to photograph Triplet Craters, a series of three craters making a 90-foot formation.

At Bench Crater, they collected several documented samples, often preceded with expressions like “Oooooh!” and “That’s a beauty!” and dug a trench to expose subsurface material. Conrad declined a request from Gibson to climb down into the crater to collect some bedrock samples as he considered the side too steep for safety. From Bench Crater they walked to the 36-foot wide Sharp Crater, the westernmost stop on their traverse. They dug a trench and collected a sample from about eight inches deep and placed it inside a Special Environmental Sample Container (SESC) that kept the sample in a pristine vacuum condition until opened in the Lunar Receiving Lab (LRL) in Houston after the mission. They also collected a core sample from inside the trench.

Skirting south of Bench Crater, the duo jogged 700 feet east toward Halo Crater, another 36-foot feature near the southwestern rim of Surveyor Crater. Bean took another core sample near Halo Crater, using a hammer to drive it home. And like two tourists on vacation, Conrad and Bean posed for pictures of each other. From there, they set off toward the main objective of EVA2, Surveyor 3 resting on the inner slope of 600-foot wide Surveyor Crater. Entering the crater from the south rim, they walked counterclockwise while descending down the slope until they reached the robotic spacecraft. After taking “tourist” pictures with Surveyor, the two photographed the craft from all angles, noting that the trenches left by its scoop and the marks from its footpads when it bounced after landing looked as fresh as when Surveyor photographed them in 1967. Using cutters, Conrad removed the craft’s camera, scoop, and other parts for stowage in Intrepid and return to Earth where engineers and scientists examined them for the effects of 31 months in the harsh lunar environment. The work at Surveyor completed, the two continued their counterclockwise trek around the crater back toward Intrepid, making a stop at the 30-foot wide Block Crater along the way to collect one more sample that likely included lunar bedrock.

Conrad jogged ahead back to Intrepid to prepare the second SRC to load the rocks and other samples as Bean followed behind and helped transfer the samples. At one point, Conrad realized he was trying to blow dust off the SRC, forgetting he was wearing a helmet! Bean walked off to retrieve the SWC experiment, encountering some difficulties in rolling it back up. Compared with a short 77-minute exposure during Apollo 11, this SWC collected samples of the solar wind for nearly 19 hours. With everything packed up, Bean headed up the ladder, with a mostly unsuccessful attempt by Conrad to brush off some of the clinging lunar dust. As they did at the end of EVA1, Conrad passed all the equipment that was destined to return with them up to Bean, and soon after he climbed the ladder too. After closing the hatch, they repressurized Intrepid, ending the 3-hour 49-minute EVA2. After removing their EVA gloves and PLSS backpacks, they depressurized the cabin and threw them out the hatch, with the seismometer registering their impacts with the ground. They repressurized Intrepid one last time and began to clean up the cabin. With some extra time and some film left over, they took photographs out the window, and then began to prepare for the liftoff to rendezvous with Gordon in Yankee Clipper.

JOURNEY BACK EARTH

Apollo 12 astronauts Charles “Pete” Conrad and Alan L. Bean were in high spirits when they re-entered their Lunar Module (LM) Intrepid on the Moon’s Ocean of Storms. They had completed two Extravehicular Activities (EVAs) or spacewalks on the lunar surface, spending a total of 7 hours and 45 minutes outside. One the second EVA, they paid a visit to Surveyor 3, a robotic spacecraft that had landed nearby in April 1967, and snipped off several parts of the spacecraft to return them to Earth for scientists and engineers to assess the effects of 31 months in the harsh lunar environment. Conrad and Bean collected 76 pounds of lunar rocks, soil, and core samples, safely stowed in two Sample Return Containers (SRC). Inside the LM they prepared to liftoff from the surface and rejoin the third Apollo 12 crewmember, Richard F. Gordon, who continued to orbit the Moon in the Command Module (CM) Yankee Clipper, taking photographs and making other observations.

When they returned inside Intrepid, Conrad and Bean used up their remaining film by taking photographs out the windows, showing the signs of their visit – numerous footprints, the American flag, the S-band antenna, and in the distance, the Apollo Lunar Surface Experiment Package (ALSEP) station. They jettisoned their Portable Life Support System (PLSS) backpacks, gloves, and cameras, and ate a meal, after which Conrad said they were ready to “have a little chitty chat about the EVA” with Capcom Edward G. Gibson. In that conversation, Conrad said, “Al and I look just like a couple of bituminous coal miners right at the moment. But we’re happy.” To which Gibson replied, “So are a lot of people down here.” Gordon, coming around the Moon’s front side on his 28th revolution, congratulated Conrad and Bean on a job well done. To prepare for liftoff, Conrad and Bean tested Intrepid’s Reaction Control System (RCS) thrusters. The firings kicked up a fair bit of dust and also knocked over the S-band antenna, but the vehicle automatically switched to its own antenna with no loss of communications.

As Gordon in Yankee Clipper flew overhead on his 30th lunar revolution, Intrepid’s Ascent Stage engine ignited and Conrad and Bean lifted off from the Moon after 31 hours and 31 minutes on the surface, leaving the Descent Stage behind. Conrad exclaimed, “Liftoff! And away we go!” with Bean adding, “Boy, did it fire!” Even though the astronauts had deployed the ALSEP instruments more than 400 feet from Intrepid, several of the sensitive ones recorded the liftoff – the seismometer detected the vibrations, ion and dust detectors noted spikes in their readings, and the magnetometer recorded field fluctuations for 12 minutes. Ten seconds after liftoff at an altitude of 275 feet, Intrepid pitched over by 45 degrees to begin its climb to orbit. The 7-minute burn placed Intrepid into an intermediate 53-by-10-mile orbit, trailing Yankee Clipper by about 290 miles. The lunar dust that had settled on the floor of the LM floated throughout the cabin now that they were weightless again, so Conrad and Bean elected to keep their suits including helmets on to avoid breathing in the abrasive dust. In a repeat of the Apollo 11 rendezvous sequence Intrepid and Yankee Clipper executed a series of maneuvers that led to their docking about three and a half hours after liftoff from the Moon. Gordon relayed color TV views of the docking to Mission Control. Their independent flights had lasted 37 hours and 42 minutes.

The three astronauts opened the hatches between the two spacecraft and quickly began transferring all the required items from Intrepid into Yankee Clipper, including all the lunar samples, cameras, and film. Conrad and Bean decided to remove their spacesuits in Intrepid and then transfer them across in an attempt to minimize contaminating Yankee Clipper with lunar dust. Gordon transferred some unneeded items to be jettisoned in Intrepid. The transfers completed, they closed the hatches between the spacecraft and jettisoned the LM. To calibrate the seismometer left on the Moon, controllers sent a command to Intrepid to fire its thrusters for 83 seconds to drop it out of orbit and send it crashing on the surface about 40 miles from the instrument. The seismometer recorded signals for nearly one hour after the impact. Meanwhile, the astronauts prepared for their sleep period after a strenuous nearly 24-hour day.

The astronauts began their final day in lunar orbit as they appeared on the Moon’s front side on their 38th revolution. The primary activity for their remaining time around the Moon consisted of photographing potential landing sites for future Apollo missions, such as the Fra Mauro highlands and the Descartes region, as well as targets of opportunity such as the Smyth Sea. To achieve the best orbital track for this task the crew performed a 19-second out-of-plane maneuver using the Service Propulsion System (SPS) engine. On their 45th revolution, they went around to the Moon’s backside for the last time as they fired the SPS for the 2-minute and 10-second Trans Earth Injection (TEI) burn. Apollo 12 left lunar orbit after 3 days 17 hours and 2 minutes. As they rounded from the back side of the Moon, Conrad radioed to Mission Control, “Hello, Houston. Apollo 12’s en route home.” They had already set up the color TV camera and began transmitting views of the rapidly receding Moon. Capcom Don L. Lind commented, “We really get the impression that you’re on a fast elevator,” eliciting this response from Gordon, “Yes, we're really moving out, Don. It doesn't take very long to get some altitude out of that place.” They concluded the 38-minute TV broadcast by filming themselves in the cabin, having already traveled nearly 2,900 miles from the Moon. Shortly thereafter, all three crewmembers began a well-earned sleep period.

While the astronauts slept for about 12 hours, Apollo 12 passed from the Moon’s gravitational sphere of influence to the Earth’s and the spacecraft began to accelerate toward its final destination. The first order of business on this crew day involved a minor course correction, at a distance of about 200,000 miles from Earth, a burn of the RCS thrusters of less than five seconds to refine the spacecraft’s trajectory. While Capcom Gibson read up the day’s news to the astronauts, he also reported that their wives Jane Conrad, Barbara Gordon, and Sue Bean greeted reporters that morning outside the Conrads’ house wearing white pantsuits and holding up signs that read, “Proud,” Thrilled,” and “Happy.” Gibson also reported to the crew that the ALSEP experiments were all working as expected. The astronauts answered questions from geologists and other scientists, relayed by Capcoms Gibson and Lind, about their lunar traverses and their impressions of Surveyor 3. The astronauts finished the day with some housekeeping chores, which included frequent cleaning of air filters due to the lunar dust they brought in from the LM, and went to sleep, some 187,000 miles from Earth.

The next morning, the astronauts awoke before Mission Control could call them, and Conrad asked Capcom Paul J. Weitz to send the following tongue-in-cheek message full of Navy slang to Rear Admiral Donald C. Davis, head of the US Navy Recovery Forces aboard the prime recovery ship USS Hornet (CVS-12), “Dear Red Dog, Apollo 12 with three tail-hookers expect recovery ship to make its PIM (Point of Intended Movement) as we have energy for only one pass. Signed Pete, Dick, and Al.” A few minutes later, after the astronauts had a glimpse of Earth now 160,000 miles away, Conrad told Capcom Weitz, “Houston, we just got our first glimpse of you this morning, and there’s not very much of you out there.” With the Sun and the Earth nearly aligned, the astronauts could only see a very thin crescent of their home planet. They passed the halfway mark of their journey home, being an equidistant 126,787 miles from the Moon and Earth. Later in the day, the trio held a televised news conference, with Capcom Gerald P. “Jerry” Carr reading up 13 questions submitted by reporters at the Manned Spacecraft Center, now the Johnson Space Center in Houston. At the end of the 37-minute broadcast the crew held up a homemade sign to the camera that read, “Yankee Clipper sailed with Intrepid to the Sea of Storms, Moon, November 14, 1969,” signed by all three crewmembers. Soon after, the three astronauts turned in for their last night’s sleep in space, only 108,000 miles from their home planet.

RECOVERY

Selected as the Prime Recovery Ship (PRS) for Apollo 12 on Aug. 17, 1969, USS Hornet (CVS-12) steamed out of her home port of Long Beach, California, on Oct. 27 and arrived at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, four days later. Hornet served as the PRS for Apollo 11 in July 1969 and her skipper Capt. Carl J. Seiberlich and crew put that experience to good use. Reflecting both the previous recovery activities and the emphasis on the safe retrieval of the astronauts, Capt. Seiberlich chose Three More Like Before as the motto for the Apollo 12 operation. The US Navy frogmen for Apollo 12 comprised a new team from Underwater Demolition Team-13 (UDT-13), with Ernest L. “Ernie” Jahncke serving as the decontamination officer.

While in dock at Pearl Harbor, workers loaded two Mobile Quarantine Facilities (MQFs), highly modified Airstream trailers, aboard Hornet and other equipment required for the recovery operation. The MQFs, one prime and one backup, served as the initial quarantine location for the astronauts after splashdown until they reached the Lunar Receiving Laboratory (LRL) at the Manned Spacecraft Center (MSC), now the Johnson Space Center in Houston. The major change in the recovery protocols involved the astronauts no longer having to wear the hot and bulky Biological Isolation Garments (BIGs) worn by the Apollo 11 crew – managers decided that clean overalls and respirators provided adequate protection against back-contamination since scientists found no evidence of any pathogenic lunar microorganisms in the Apollo 11 samples. On Nov. 10, Hornet slipped her moorings at Pearl Harbor and arrived at the Apollo 12 target location in the South Pacific 375 miles east of Pago Pago, American Samoa, on splashdown day, Nov. 24.

Aboard the Apollo 12 Command Module (CM) Yankee Clipper, the crew of Charles “Pete” Conrad, Richard F. Gordon, and Alan L. Bean awoke for their last day in space, now only 72,000 miles from Earth and rapidly accelerating. The first order of business for the day consisted of preparing for a minor course correction, a five-second retrograde burn of the Reaction Control System (RCS) thrusters to refine the spacecraft’s entry corridor into the atmosphere. And orbital mechanics had a show in store for the astronauts – their trajectory passed through the Earth’s shadow, treating them to a total solar eclipse. From their perspective, the Earth appeared about 15 times larger than the Sun. With Apollo 12 about 30,000 miles from Earth and travelling at 7,500 miles per hour, Gordon radioed Mission Control, “We’re getting a spectacular view at eclipse,” and Bean added that it was a “fantastic sight.” Conrad reported on the rapidly changing scenery, with the Sun illuminating the Earth’s atmosphere in a 360-degree ring with ever-changing colors while the planet remained pitch black. In the darkness, they could see flashes of lightning in thunderstorms appearing as fireflies. Unfortunately, they had no color film left for still photography, but used the 16 mm film camera to capture color images of the eclipse. As their eyes adapted to the dark portion of the Earth, they made out landmasses such as India and even city lights. In the center of the Earth’s dark disc they reported seeing a large bright circle that turned out to be the glint of the full Moon reflecting off the Indian Ocean. During the course of the eclipse, Apollo 12 had travelled about 10,000 miles and its speed increased to 9,000 miles per hour. Interestingly, the robotic spacecraft Conrad and Bean visited on the Moon just a few days earlier, Surveyor 3, had taken the first photographs of a solar eclipse from the lunar surface on April 24, 1967.

The excitement of the eclipse over, the astronauts prepared the cabin for reentry, activating and testing the CM’s thrusters. At an altitude of 4,245 miles, the CM separated from the Service Module and rotated to point its heatshield into the direction of flight. At an altitude of 400,000 feet, Yankee Clipper now travelling at 24,625 miles per hour encountered the first tendrils of Earth’s atmosphere. About four minutes of radio blackout followed as ionized gases created by the heat of reentry surrounded the spacecraft. Bean filmed the entry with a 16-mm camera mounted in Yankee Clipper’s right hand window. The spacecraft’s computer used the vehicle’s lift capability to execute a small skip maneuver to reduce heat loads on the heatshield. The astronauts experienced a peak deceleration of about 6 times the force of gravity. As Apollo 12 came out of the blackout, Hornet established radar contact with the spacecraft at a distance of 119 miles. At an altitude of about 24,000 feet, the spacecraft jettisoned its apex cover, followed by the deployment of the two drogue parachutes to slow and stabilize the capsule. At 10,000 feet, the three main 83-foot diameter orange and white parachutes deployed, with Conrad reporting, “Three gorgeous beautiful chutes.” Precisely 244 hours and 36 minutes after lifting off from Florida, Apollo 12 splashed down in the Pacific Ocean less than 4 miles from Hornet, bringing the second lunar landing mission to a successful conclusion. A NASA video of the Apollo 12 mission can be found here.

At the moment of splashdown, the CM hit a rising wave causing a harder than expected landing. The force of the impact displaced part of the heat shield and also dislodged the 16 mm film camera mounted in the window. The camera hit Bean in the head resulting in a gash and momentarily dazing him, causing him not to trip two circuit breakers to jettison the parachute lines. This resulted in the capsule assuming the apex down Stable 2 position in the water. Three self-inflating balloons righted the spacecraft into the Stable 1 upright orientation in less than five minutes. Five minutes later, a helicopter dropped the first three UDT swimmers into the water, tasked with securing a flotation collar and rafts to the spacecraft, tying a sea anchor to it for stability, and filming the recovery from the water. The process took about 10 minutes, while inside the capsule Conrad and Bean placed a bandage on Bean’s still bleeding forehead. Decontamination officer Jahncke next dropped into the water and once the crew opened the hatch, he handed them fresh flight suits and respirators. A few minutes later, the crew reopened the hatch, and first Conrad, then Gordon, and finally Bean climbed aboard one of the rafts where Jahncke used a disinfectant solution to decontaminate the astronauts and also the spacecraft. The recovery helicopter lowered a Billy Pugh net to haul the astronauts up from the raft, first Gordon, then Bean, and finally Conrad. Aboard the helicopter, NASA flight surgeon Dr. Clarence A. Jernigan gave each astronaut a brief physical examination during the brief flight back to Hornet, declaring all three of them healthy.

After landing on Hornet’s deck, sailors lowered the helicopter to the hangar deck, where Conrad, Gordon, and Bean, followed by Jernigan walked the few steps to the MQF where NASA engineer Brock R. “Randy” Stone awaited them. He sealed the door of the MQF exactly one hour after splashdown. The five men spent the next five days together in the MQF until they arrived at the LRL. The astronauts cleaned up and took congratulatory phone calls from President Richard M. Nixon, who field-promoted all three from US Navy Commanders to Captains, and from NASA Administrator Thomas O. Paine. After the astronauts talked briefly with their families, Commander-in-Chief of Pacific Naval Forces Admiral John S. McCain formally welcomed them back to Earth, followed by brief speeches by Rear Admiral Donald C. Davis, Commander of Recovery Forces, and Capt. Seiberlich.

Mission Control in Houston was closely monitoring the splashdown and recovery activities, with most communications with the spacecraft being handled by Hornet’s recovery team. The room was rapidly filling to capacity as managers and engineers prepared for the celebration of a mission successfully accomplished. The four Apollo 12 Flight Directors, Glynn S. Lunney, M.P. “Pete” Frank, Gerald D. “Gerry” Griffin, and Clifford E. Charlesworth, gathered to celebrate the end of the 10-day flight. Top NASA Managers such as Rocco A. Petrone, Apollo Program Director at Headquarters, Director of Flight Operations Christopher C. Kraft, Apollo Spacecraft Program Manager James A. McDivitt, and MSC Director Robert L. Gilruth, joined in the celebrations.

Within an hour after the astronauts arrived on board Hornet, the UDT swimmers and sailors aboard Hornet hauled Yankee Clipper out of the water and towed it below to the hangar deck next to the MQF. Once the capsule was secured, Hornet set sail for Pearl Harbor, arriving there four days later. Workers attached a hermetically sealed plastic tunnel between the MQF and Yankee Clipper, allowing Stone to leave the MQF and open the hatch to the capsule without breaking the biological barrier. He retrieved the two Sample Return Containers (SRC) containing the lunar samples, the bags containing the Surveyor parts, film cassettes, and mission logs from the capsule and returned them to the MQF. Stone sealed the SRCs, film cassettes, and medical samples taken inside the MQF in plastic bags and transferred them to the outside through a transfer lock that included a decontamination wash. Outside the MQF, NASA engineers placed these items into transport containers and loaded them aboard two separate aircraft. The first aircraft, a C-2 Greyhound, carrying one SRC and a second package containing film departed Hornet within nine hours of the recovery, flying to Pago Pago 380 miles to the west. From there the two containers were placed aboard a C-141 Starlifter cargo aircraft and flown directly to Ellington Air Force Base (AFB) near MSC in Houston, arriving there late in the afternoon of Nov. 25. A second C-2 departed Hornet 14 hours after the first and included the second SRC, additional film as well as the astronaut medical samples. It flew to Pago Pago where workers transferred the containers to another cargo plane that flew them to Houston. Less than 48 hours after splashdown, scientists in the LRL were examining the lunar samples and processing the film.

RETURN TO HOUSTON

Apollo 12 splashed down in the South Pacific 375 miles east of Pago Pago, American Samoa, on Nov. 24, 1969, successfully completing the second lunar landing mission. The Command Module (CM) Yankee Clipper and the crew of Charles “Pete” Conrad, Richard F. Gordon, and Alan L. Bean were successfully recovered and delivered aboard the Prime Recovery Ship (PRS) USS Hornet (CVS-12). To prevent back contamination of the Earth with any possible lunar organisms, once aboard the carrier the astronauts entered the Mobile Quarantine Facility (MQF) along with NASA flight surgeon Dr. Clarence A. Jernigan and NASA recovery engineer Brock R. “Randy” Stone. The recovery operations intended to return the astronauts inside the MQF, Yankee Clipper, and the lunar samples and film magazines to the Lunar Receiving Laboratory (LRL) at the Manned Spacecraft Center (MSC), now the Johnson Space Center in Houston, as expeditiously as possible while maintaining the strict biological isolation protocols.

Within an hour after the astronauts arrived on board Hornet, the sailors lifted Yankee Clipper out of the water and towed it below to the hangar deck next to the MQF. Workers attached a hermetically sealed plastic tunnel between the MQF and Yankee Clipper, allowing Stone to leave the MQF and open the hatch to the capsule without breaking the biological isolation barrier. He retrieved the two Sample Return Containers (SRC) containing the lunar samples, the bags containing the Surveyor parts, film cassettes, and mission logs from the capsule and returned them to the MQF. Stone sealed the SRCs, film cassettes, and medical samples taken inside the MQF in plastic bags and transferred them to the outside through a transfer lock that included a decontamination wash. Outside the MQF, NASA engineers placed these items into transport containers and loaded them aboard two separate aircraft. The first aircraft, a C-2 Greyhound, carrying one SRC and a second package containing film departed Hornet within nine hours of the recovery, flying to Pago Pago 380 miles to the west. From there the two containers were placed aboard a C-141 Starlifter cargo aircraft and flown directly to Ellington Air Force Base (AFB) near MSC in Houston, arriving there late in the afternoon of Nov. 25. A second C-2 departed Hornet 14 hours after the first and included the second SRC, additional film as well as the astronaut medical samples. It flew to Pago Pago where workers transferred the containers to another cargo plane that flew them to Houston. Quarantine Control Officers in the LRL carried the containers from the transport aircraft to a NASA vehicle to make the 15-minute drive to the LRL to place them in quarantine.

Technicians in the LRL unpacked the first SRC from its shipping container, weighed it, and installed it in a glovebox in the Vacuum Laboratory. Conrad and Bean had sealed the box in the vacuum of the lunar environment and the glovebox provided a vacuum to prevent Earth’s atmosphere from contaminating the pristine samples. Based on the Apollo 11 experience, scientists updated their procedures for examining the lunar samples and were more efficient in processing them. On Nov. 27, one of the samples was sent off to the radiation counting lab for gamma radiation sampling, with the examination of the rest of the samples beginning on Nov. 30.

Meanwhile, in the Pacific Ocean, Hornet set sail for Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, as soon as Yankee Clipper was secured below decks, with the astronauts inside the MQF to maintain the strict back-contamination protocols. The day after splashdown, Hornet’s commanding officer Capt. Carl J. Seiberlich officiated at a formal welcoming ceremony for the Apollo astronauts that also included celebrating the 26th anniversary of Hornet’s commissioning in November 1943. During the voyage, the astronauts rested and began to organize their thoughts for the postflight debriefings that began once they arrived in Houston. They also celebrated Thanksgiving on Nov. 27. Dr. Jernigan conducted regular medical examinations of the astronauts, who showed no ill effects from their ten-day spaceflight or any signs of infection by any lunar microorganisms. The crewmembers availed themselves of one amenity aboard the MQF that was a novelty at the time – a microwave oven for meal preparation.

On Nov. 28, Hornet arrived at Pearl Harbor, four days after Yankee Clipper was safely hoisted aboard – the voyage at sea taking longer than the trip home from the Moon! Using a crane, workers lifted the MQF with the astronauts inside onto a flat-bed trailer. After a brief welcoming ceremony including traditional Hawaiian flower leis, ukulele music and hula dancers, workers drove the MQF to nearby Hickam AFB, where Air Force personnel loaded it onto a C-141 Starlifter. After an eight-hour flight, the C-141 arrived at Ellington on the morning of Nov. 29, where the MQF was offloaded in front of a waiting crowd of well-wishers including MSC Director Robert L. Gilruth and Apollo 11 astronaut Neil A. Armstrong. The astronauts’ wives and children were on hand to welcome them home to Houston. Although still inside the MQF, the astronauts could talk with their families via a telephone connection and see each other through the windows. Workers placed the MQF on a flat-bed truck and drove it to the LRL. Less than two hours after landing in Houston the astronauts arrived inside the Crew Reception Area (CRA) where they spent the next 11 days. During their time in quarantine, they completed many of the postflight debriefs and examined the lunar rocks as well as the parts of Surveyor 3 such as its camera that they returned from the Ocean of Storms.

Postscript: The USS Hornet earned its place in history not only for its distinguished service to the United States in wartime but for the successful recovery of the first two Moon landing crews and their spacecraft. After the Apollo 12 recovery operations, Hornet sailed for its home port of Long Beach, California, on Nov. 29, arriving four days later. For a brief time, NASA and the US Navy considered designating Hornet as the PRS for Apollo 13, then scheduled for launch in March 1970. But Hornet was scheduled for decommissioning in June 1970, and that would not leave enough time for all the required deactivation and preservation work. The slip of the Apollo 13 launch to April decided Hornet’s fate. After a few brief operations at sea, Hornet departed Long Beach for the final time, sailing to Bremerton, Washington, for deactivation, and the US Navy formally decommissioned her on June 26, 1970. In December 1991, Hornet earned a designation as a National Historic Landmark thanks to local community efforts in Washington. Hornet remained in Bremerton until 1994, when she was towed to the San Francisco Bay area to be scrapped, but in May 1995 was moved to Alameda Naval Air Station to serve as the venue for celebrations commemorating the 50th anniversary of the end of World War II. The Aircraft Carrier Hornet Foundation acquired the ship from the Navy and opened the USS Hornet Museum in October 1998, with Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin speaking at the inauguration. The museum is moored at Alameda Point and visitors can see the MQF used during the Apollo 14 mission and the boilerplate Apollo capsule used during recovery training along with other space memorabilia.

END OF QUARANTINE

For the first time in nearly four weeks, Apollo 12 astronauts Charles “Pete” Conrad, Richard F. Gordon, and Alan L. Bean stepped out into sunshine and breathed unfiltered air. Since their launch on Nov. 14, 1969, the trio had been inside their spacecraft for 10 days on their mission to the Moon and back, wore respirators during their recovery in the Pacific Ocean, housed in the Mobile Quarantine Facility during the trip from the prime recovery ship USS Hornet back to Houston, and inside the Crew Reception Area (CRA) of the Lunar Receiving Laboratory (LRL) at the Manned Spacecraft Center (MSC), now the Johnson Space Center in Houston. Like the Apollo 11 crew before them, Conrad, Gordon, and Bean exhibited no symptoms of any infections with lunar microorganisms and managers declared them fit to be released from quarantine on Dec. 10, 1969. MSC Director Robert L. Gilruth, other managers and a crowd of well-wishers were on hand to greet the astronauts who completed the second Moon landing mission. Their next few months proved to be extremely busy with many ceremonial functions.

Addressing the crowd gathered outside the LRL, Conrad commented that “the LRL was really quite pleasant,” but all three were glad to be breathing non man-made air! While the men went home to their families for a short rest, work inside the LRL continued. Scientists began examining the first of the 75 pounds of rocks returned by the astronauts as well as the camera and other hardware they removed from Surveyor 3 for effects of 31 months exposed to the harsh lunar environment. Preliminary analysis of the TV camera that failed early during their first spacewalk on the lunar surface indicated that the failure was due to partial burnout of the Videocon tube, likely caused by the crew accidentally pointing the camera toward the Sun. Other scientists busied themselves with analyzing the data returning from the Apollo Lunar Surface Experiment Package (ALSEP) instruments Conrad and Bean deployed on the lunar surface. Mission planners examining the photographs taken from lunar orbit of the Fra Mauro area were confident that the next mission, Apollo 13, would be able to make a safe landing in that geologically interesting site, the first attempt to land in the lunar highlands.

Two days after leaving the LRL, Conrad, Gordon, and Bean held their postflight press conference in the MSC auditorium. Addressing the assembled reporters, the astronauts first introduced their wives as their “number one support team” and then provided a film and photo summary of their mission and answered numerous questions. Among other things, the astronauts praised the spacesuits they wore during the Moon walks, indicating they worked very well and looking to the future saw no impediments to longer excursions on future missions. Their only concern centered around the ever-present lunar dust that clung to their suits, raising that as a potential issue for future lunar explorers.

Conrad, Gordon, and Bean returned to Kennedy Space Center (KSC) on Dec. 17, where their mission began more than a month earlier and nearly ended prematurely when their Saturn V rocket was struck by lightning, twice. KSC Director Kurt H. Debus presented each astronaut with a framed photograph of their launch in front of 8,000 workers assembled in the Vehicle Assembly Building. Of their nearly ill-fated litfoff Conrad expressed his signature confidence, “Had we to do it again, I would launch exactly under the same conditions.” Guenter Wendt and his pad closeout team had collected a piece of grounding rod from the umbilical tower, cut it into three short pieces, mounted them with the inscription “In fond memory of the electrifying launch of Apollo 12,” and presented them to the astronauts. Three days later, President Richard M. Nixon and First Lady Pat Nixon welcomed Conrad, Gordon, and Bean and their wives Jane, Barbara, and Sue, respectively, to a dinner at the White House. After dinner, they watched a film about the Apollo 12 mission as well as the recently-released motion picture Marooned about three astronauts stranded in space. President Nixon requested that the astronauts pay a visit to former President Lyndon B. Johnson, who for many years championed America’s space program, and brief him on their mission.

On Dec. 22, the city of Fort Worth, Texas, honored native son Bean, with Conrad, Gordon, and their families joining him for the Alan Bean Day festivities. An estimated 150,000 people lined the streets of the city to welcome Bean and his crewmates, dumping a blizzard of ticker tape and shredded office paper on the astronauts and their families during the parade. City workers cleared an estimated 60 tons of paper from the streets after the event. On New Year’s Day 1970, Conrad, Gordon, and Bean led the 81st annual Tournament of Roses Parade in Pasadena, California, as Grand Marshals. Actress June Lockhart, an avid space enthusiast, interviewed them during the TV broadcast of the event.

As requested by President Nixon during the White House dinner, Conrad, Gordon, and Bean and their wives paid a visit to former President Johnson and First Lady Lady Bird Johnson at their ranch near Fredericksburg, Texas, on Jan. 14, 1970. The astronauts described their mission to the former President and Mrs. Johnson. On Feb. 5, in a ceremony at the Pentagon, Admiral Thomas H. Moorer, Chief of Naval Operations, presented Conrad, Gordon, and Bean, all Navy Captains, with Distinguished Service Medals for their accomplishment. In turn, the astronauts presented Adm. Moorer with his personal flag that they carried with them during the moon mission. Eleven days later, the three astronauts, accompanied by their wives and a NASA and State Department entourage, departed Ellington Air Force Base in Houston for a 38-day 20-country around-the-world Presidential goodwill tour, dubbed the “Bullseye World Tour” in honor of the pinpoint landing they made on the Moon.

The distribution of the Apollo 12 lunar samples to selected investigators began on Jan. 7, 1970, coincident with the First Lunar Science Conference held Jan. 5-8 at the Albert Thomas Convention Center in Houston. While the conference focused on preliminary results from the Apollo 11 samples, some investigators received their first samples from the second landing mission, while others received them by registered mail. In all, scientists received 28.6 pounds of the Apollo 12 samples for investigation, of which they returned 23.7 pounds at the end of the study period, four pounds having been destroyed during the experiments. Managers lifted the quarantine on Jan. 7 on the Surveyor 3 parts returned by the astronauts, allowing scientists to examine them under laboratory conditions for the effects of 31 months on the lunar surface and the impact of the Lunar Module’s descent engine during the approach and landing. NASA published a summary of their findings in 1972.

Managers released the Apollo 12 Command Module Yankee Clipper from quarantine and shipped it back to its manufacturer, the North American Rockwell plant in Downey, California, on Jan. 12. Engineers there completed a thorough inspection of the spacecraft and eventually prepared it for public display. NASA transferred Yankee Clipper to the Smithsonian Institution in 1973, and today the capsule resides at the Virginia Air & Space Center in Hampton, Virginia.

While the Apollo 12 astronauts continued their post-mission touring, Apollo 11 commander Neil A. Armstrong joined Bob Hope’s USO Christmas tour in late December 1969. Armstrong participated in several shows at venues in Vietnam, Thailand, and Guam, kidding around with Hope and answering questions from the assembled service members. He received standing ovations and spent much time shaking hands with the troops. The USO troupe also visited the hospital ship USS Sanctuary (AH-17) stationed in the South China Sea.