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It’s 50 Years Since Apollo 12, The Only Time Humans Met A Space Robot On The Moon

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UPDATE: The original headline was changed from 12 Things You Need To Know About Apollo 12, The Beginning Of The End For NASA Moonshots 50 Years Ago

This July 16, 2019 saw the 50th anniversary of the launch of the landmark Apollo 11, but NASA’s following five missions to the moon were—technically, at least—more impressive. Today it’s the 50th anniversary of the launch of the second crewed lunar landing mission, Apollo 12, whose objective was to perform a much more detailed scientific lunar exploration ... and meet-up with a space robot.

Apollo 12 could easily have been the first moon landing. If Apollo 11 had failed, Apollo 12 was lined-up for launch in September 1969, and the ill-fated Apollo 13 for November. However, with Apollo 11’s success, Apollo 12 moved back, and on November 14, 1969 at 11:22 a.m. EST, astronauts Charles "Pete" Conrad, future lunar artist Alan L. Bean and Richard F. Gordon lifted off from Kennedy Space Center on NASA’s second moonshot.

1. Apollo 12’s Saturn V was hit by lightning

As President Nixon watched on—the first president to attend a manned launch—Apollo 12 launched under rainy, cloudy conditions and 36 seconds after lift-off the Saturn V rocket was struck by lightning. Then again on 52 seconds. “We had everything in the world drop out,” said Conrad, but the rocket was unaffected and the systems soon came back to life. 

2. The crew witnessed a beautiful total solar eclipse

As the Apollo 12 command module returned to Earth, it went behind the planet relative to the sun, and the astronauts witnessed a total solar eclipse caused not by the moon, but by Earth. The above image was taken on November 21, 1969.

3. The Intrepid landed in an ‘Ocean of Storms’

An ancient basin created by a massive impact then filled with lava and coated thickly in moon-dust, the “Ocean of Storms”—Oceanus Procellarum—was the destination of Apollo 12’s lunar lander Intrepid.

4. It was NASA’s first precision-landing on the moon

In the first-ever planned and executed precision landing on the moon, the Intrepid landed 450 feet from its intended target on the northwest rim of the moon’s Ocean of Storms in Mare Cognitum–the “Known Sea.”  It meant that NASA could target scientifically interesting parts of the moon in future, rather than go for a flat, safe option, as it did for Apollo 11.

5. Alan Bean destroyed the moon’s first color TV camera

Apollo 12 had the first color TV camera on the moon–given to the crew three days before launch–and Conrad was successfully filmed descending to the lunar surface. However, while setting it up on the moon’s surface, Alan Bean accidentally pointed it at the sun, which destroyed its image pick-up tube. “Here is the TV. And it's pointing toward the Sun. That's bad.” he said. It was a serious setback with devastating consequences; TV networks had cleared their schedules to cover the Apollo 12 mission in in-depth and in exquisite color, and were left frustrated. Arguably, the Apollo missions never recovered from this major media mishap.

6. Alan Bean was knocked unconscious by a falling camera after re-entry

The bottom of Apollo 12’s command module smacked-down hard on to the Pacific Ocean rather than splashing-down at a slight angle. Consequently, Alan Bean was knocked unconsciousness for five seconds by a 16mm film camera that dislodged and hit his forehead. He had to have six stitches in a 2cm laceration above his right eyebrow.

7. Conrad and Bean visited a NASA probe on the moon

Apollo 12 purposely landed near the crash site of NASA’s probe Surveyor 3, a robotic probe that had landed on the moon just 2 1/2 years before. Bean and Conrad walked over to it and retrieved various pieces of the probe to help scientists back home study how space affects mechanical parts, including its camera. No other space-probe has ever been visited by astronauts after launch.

8. All of the Apollo 12 crew are dead

Apollo 12 Commander Conrad, the third human to walk on the moon, died in July 1999 in a motorcycle accident. He was followed by command module pilot Gordon in November 2017 and lunar module pilot Bean in May 2018.

9. Apollo 12’s moon rocks are much younger than Apollo 11’s

Conrad and Bean performed two moonwalks, totalling 32 hours, and collected 34kg of samples and 45 moon rocks. They are mostly basalt, and 500 million years younger than the rocks collected on Apollo 11.

10. The third man on the moon’s first word was "Whoopie!”

Conrad’s first words on the moon didn’t come close to Neil Armstrong’s “one small step” or Buzz Aldrin’s “magnificent desolation.” Instead he let out a high-pitched “whoopie!” and said “That may have been a small one for Neil, but that's a long one for me.”

 11. The command module was named after a baseball player

Apollo 12’s command module was named the Yankee Clipper, the nickname of a Major League Baseball player called Joe DiMaggio. It’s on display at the Virginia Air and Space Center in Hampton, Virginia. 

12. Apollo 12’s mission patch honors a fallen astronaut

As part of the backup crew for what became Apollo 9, astronaut Clifton C. “C.C.” Williams should have been on Apollo 12 instead of Alan Bean. However, Williams was killed on October 5, 1967 when his T-38 aircraft crashed in Florida. In his honor the Apollo 12 crew included four stars on their mission patch, and his naval aviator wings were placed on the surface of the moon.

Wishing you clear skies and wide eyes.

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