Apollo 12
Astronaut Pete Conrad studies the Surveyor 3 spacecraft; the Lunar Module, Intrepid, can be seen in the top right of the picture.
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| Mission type | Manned lunar landing |
|---|---|
| Operator | NASA |
| COSPAR ID |
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| SATCAT № |
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| Mission duration | 10 days, 4 hours, 36 minutes, 24 seconds |
| Spacecraft properties | |
| Spacecraft |
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| Manufacturer |
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| Launch mass | 101,127 pounds (45,870 kg) |
| Landing mass | 11,050 pounds (5,010 kg) |
| Crew | |
| Crew size | 3 |
| Members | |
| Callsign |
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| Start of mission | |
| Launch date | November 14, 1969, 16:22:00 UTC |
| Rocket | Saturn V SA-507 |
| Launch site | Kennedy LC-39A |
| End of mission | |
| Recovered by | USS Hornet |
| Landing date | November 24, 1969, 20:58:24 UTC |
| Landing site | South Pacific Ocean 15°47′S 165°9′W / 15.783°S 165.150°W |
| Orbital parameters | |
| Reference system | Selenocentric |
| Periselene | 101.10 kilometers (54.59 nmi) |
| Aposelene | 122.42 kilometers (66.10 nmi) |
| Lunar orbiter | |
| Orbital insertion | November 18, 1969, 03:47:23 UTC |
| Departed orbit | November 21, 1969, 20:49:16 UTC |
| Orbits | 45 |
| Lunar lander | |
| Spacecraft component | Lunar Module |
| Landing date | November 19, 1969, 06:54:35 UTC |
| Return launch | November 20, 1969, 14:25:47 UTC |
| Landing site | Ocean of Storms 3°00′45″S 23°25′18″W / 3.01239°S 23.42157°W |
| Sample mass | 34.35 kilograms (75.7 lb) |
| Surface EVAs | 2 |
| EVA duration |
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| Docking with LM | |
| Docking date | November 14, 1969, 19:48:53 UTC |
| Undocking date | November 19, 1969, 04:16:02 UTC |
| Docking with LM Ascent Stage | |
| Docking date | November 20, 1969, 17:58:20 UTC |
| Undocking date | November 20, 1969, 20:21:31 UTC |
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 Left to right: Conrad, Gordon, Bean |
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Apollo 12 was the sixth manned flight in the United States Apollo program and the second to land on the Moon (an H type mission). It was launched on November 14, 1969, from the Kennedy Space Center, Florida, four months after Apollo 11. Mission commander Charles "Pete" Conrad and Lunar Module Pilot Alan L. Bean performed just over one day and seven hours of lunar surface activity while Command Module Pilot Richard F. Gordon remained in lunar orbit. The landing site for the mission was located in the southeastern portion of the Ocean of Storms.
Unlike the first landing on Apollo 11, Conrad and Bean achieved a precise landing at their expected location, the site of the Surveyor 3 unmanned probe, which had landed on April 20, 1967. They carried the first color television camera to the lunar surface on an Apollo flight, but transmission was lost after Bean accidentally destroyed the camera by pointing it at the Sun. On one of two moonwalks, they visited the Surveyor and removed some parts for return to Earth. The mission ended on November 24 with a successful splashdown.
Apollo 12 launched on schedule from Kennedy Space Center, during a rainstorm. It was the first rocket launch attended by an incumbent US president, Richard Nixon. Thirty-six-and-a-half seconds after lift-off, the vehicle triggered a lightning discharge through itself and down to the Earth through the Saturn's ionized plume. Protective circuits on the fuel cells in the Service Module (SM) falsely detected overloads and took all three fuel cells offline, along with much of the Command/Service Module (CSM) instrumentation. A second strike at 52 seconds after launch knocked out the "8-ball" attitude indicator. The telemetry stream at Mission Control was garbled. However, the vehicle continued to fly correctly; the strikes had not affected the Saturn V Instrument Unit.
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Wikipedia