Apollo 12 – Neil Armstrong’s Giant Leap to the Moon

NASA was determined to duplicate Neil Armstrong’s achievement on Apollo 11, so the crew of Apollo 12 under Commander Pete Conrad and Lunar Module Pilot Al Bean would make another giant step for humanity.

On November 14th 1969, Apollo 12 took flight from Cape Kennedy on board a Saturn V rocket. Following two orbits, they fired their S-IVB stage for translunar insertion.

Humanity’s Second Mission to the Moon

Neil Armstrong had just made history when he took a giant leap for mankind on the lunar surface, so now the space program was setting its sights on an achievable goal: sending humans back to the Moon. Mission 12 would demonstrate that Saturn V rocket could perform reliably in space and build confidence in system as preparations began for returning humans to lunar soil.

Apollo 12 took flight from Cape Kennedy on November 30, 1969 under Commander Charles “Pete” Conrad Jr., an experienced Gemini V and Gemini XI flight crew member who had also flown Gemini XI, Lunar Module Pilot Alan Bean and Command Module Pilot Richard “Dick” Gordon as part of its crew.

Two days into their flight, the crew completed one of two midcourse maneuvers required to alter their trajectory and prepare for lunar orbit insertion. Following this maneuver, Yankee Clipper turned around and untethered Lunar Module Intrepid from its storage site on top of its third stage.

When ALSEP was deployed, it was placed in the lunar mare area or plains to collect seismic and scientific data over an extended period. Additionally, its crew conducted various surveys and samplings; developed techniques for precision landing capability; and obtained photographs of potential exploration sites.

Bean and Conrad conducted EVA to collect two lunar soil samples weighing 1.9 and 14.8 kilograms respectively; deploy an S-band antenna and solar wind composition experiment; capture 600 photos of lunar surface; deploy Lunar Surface Experiments Package equipped with S-27 Atomic Generator; set up experimental station near LM; and take samples back home for study.

On their return trip, a typhoon-induced wind buffeted Yankee Clipper and forced its astronauts into tight quarters inside of the lunar module. As they rode along on this turbulent ride, one 16 mm movie camera fell from its bracket, striking Bean in the forehead, briefly stunning him before opening up a 1-inch (2.5 centimeter) cut that required bandaging.

The typhoon also caused damage to Yankee Clipper’s heat shield and scattered debris into its lunar module, but Lovell and Haise stayed on their schedule and returned safely home.

The Launch

Apollo 12 took off into a stormy sky from KSC on November 14, 1969 under difficult weather conditions, not only with rain but also with lightning striking the Saturn V rocket twice and creating electrical issues which prevented communications with Mission Control for some time. Switching over to its auxiliary power system quickly resolved this problem and Apollo 12 continued its journey into space.

A week later, astronauts entered lunar orbit. While on the lunar surface, Bean photographed potential landing sites while Conrad completed multispectral photographic surveying of lunar terrain. After returning to the CSM, Mission Control fired its propellants so the empty ascent stage could crash into the Moon providing seismic stimuli data for use by Apollo Lunar Surface Experiment Package (ALSEP) experiments on board CSM.

After three days in lunar orbit, LM Intrepid separated from Yankee Clipper and on its 89th hour performed a 19-second burn of its Service Propulsion System (SPS), sending Apollo 12 on an injection maneuver that maneuvered it past the Moon’s trailing edge using gravity as an accelerator and into solar orbit.

Lightning strikes during launch could have prevented landing parachutes from opening properly, yet NASA kept this information hidden from astronauts until just nine minutes before their scheduled splashdown when their parachute system deployed as expected.

Apollo 12 crew was safely recovered by USS Hornet a few hours later, having successfully landed within walking distance of Surveyor 3 robotic probe from April 20, 1967, providing NASA with confidence that their future lunar missions could land near sites of scientific significance – marking an important milestone in program history.

The Moon Landing

After six-minute SPS burn, Eagle was in an elliptical lunar orbit and astronauts then fired their engine again to initiate powered descent initiation. While during descent the guidance computer issued an alarm signal but simulations demonstrated that landing would still be successful so Mission Control decided to proceed with descent initiation.

As they approached the Moon, the astronauts aboard Eagle deployed the Apollo Lunar Surface Experiment Package, or ALSEP. This device consisted of instruments to measure atmospheric conditions (cold cathode gauge), magnetic field strength and interior seismometer tests on its atmosphere (cold cathode gauge) and seismometer readings from within its interior (seismometer). Furthermore, pictures were also taken and samples collected on their first excursion outside the lunar module to collect rock and dust samples for their first excursion out. They returned with roughly 40 percent oxygen reserves remaining after two four-hour moonwalks!

Conrad and Bean successfully carried out two lunar walks: during their second walk, Conrad removed a piece of Surveyor 3, humanity’s inaugural robotic probe to visit an abandoned spacecraft; they also took its TV camera back home for safekeeping; scientists later determined that an unknown bacteria known as Streptococcus mitis had infected it prior to launch but had survived two years under harsh lunar conditions.

Conrad and Bean verified that they had successfully collected all their samples before returning to Intrepid Lander and planting an American flag before reading from a plaque proclaiming they “came in peace for all mankind”. Before departing the lunar surface, Bean used his tether camera to take pictures of its surrounding environment.

On November 24th, Apollo 12 returned to Earth orbit and its flight controller advised its crew to reactivate its command module’s fuel cells by flicking an obscure switch that restored power from them back into batteries. This delayed their planned splashdown by hours.

Yankee Clipper splashed down in the Pacific Ocean roughly an hour after launch and crashed heavily into the water a short while after, although its parachutes worked successfully enough to bring its crew safely aboard USS Hornet. Navy divers assisted astronauts out of their Command Module onto a rescue raft before transporting them to mobile quarantine facility before flying them four days later aboard carrier to Pago Pago and eventually Houston.

The Return

Apollo 12 crewmembers successfully returned home after an eventful voyage. Led by Commander Pete Conrad, Command Module Pilot Dick Gordon and Lunar Module Pilot Alan Bean – launched from Kennedy Space Center on a stormy November 14, 1969 and having made rapid ascent toward orbit when their Saturn V booster was struck by lightning and suffered temporary power loss, necessitating swift response by both crewmembers and Mission Control to get them safely back in orbit again.

Once inside their lunar modules – Intrepid for the LM and Yankee Clipper for the CSM — astronauts prepared for an enormous thrust from the rocket that would propel them toward the Moon. Before that happened, however, several fault alarms went off, warning of potential issues with systems critical to safety and operation of their craft. Conrad stood guard until it was clear that conditions had stabilized sufficiently so they could proceed towards space travel towards Moon.

After several days in lunar orbit, astronauts began making preparations to land on the Moon. Their first task was deploying the ALSEP lander and SNAP-27 RTG instruments in order to gather scientific data about its surface. Conrad and Bean took photographs during an extravehicular activity (EVA), documenting themselves, their equipment, as well as taking snap shots of both themselves and lunar landscape.

On November 19th, Intrepid was launched towards the Moon to collect parts of Surveyor 3, an unmanned robotic probe which had touched down on April 20, 1967 some miles away from where Apollo 12 selected as a landing site. This mission proceeded without major complications or surprises and proved that NASA’s new procedures for improving landing accuracy actually worked.

On their return journey home, the astronauts slowed their craft down to 1.67 kilometers per second (3,735 miles per hour) to conserve fuel and allow the Goldstone, California tracking antenna to monitor LM’s descent. Furthermore, to further conserve fuel and provide a more comfortable journey back home for astronauts aboard Yankee Clipper, its crew compartment was jettisoned from LM.