SkyMan says, 45 years ago today was the second Moon landing. CAUTION: Many pix.

The second Moon landing, by the crew of Apollo 12, occurred 45 years ago today. Pete Conrad, the shortest American astronaut of the time, and one known to have a good sense of humor, said for his first step on the Moon, "That might have been a small step for Neal, but that sure was a long one for me". Pete was the commander (CDR) of Apollo 12 and the 3rd man to walk on the Moon.

I have been blessed to get to know two of the three crew members of that mission. Unfortunately Pete got killed in a motorcycle accident in the 1990's (he mentioned at one point in his life that he liked anything fast). Over the last 5+ years I've gotten to know Dick Gordon, the command module pilot (CMP) and Alan Bean, who was the lunar module pilot (LMP) and the 4th man to walk on the Moon. I have gotten fascinated by the mission and the crew, and have made it the focus of my space collecting.

In broad brushstrokes Apollo 12 launched on 11/14/69. It went into lunar orbit on 11/18 and the LM crewed by Conrad and Bean landed on the Moon on 11/19 in the Ocean of Storms. They stayed on the Moon for about 36 hours, and did 2 Moon walks with a total duration of just under 8 hours. The primary goal of the mission was to do a pinpoint landing (Apollo 11 landed miles from where it was supposed to land). The Apollo 12 target was the Surveyor 3 lunar probe. The crew was successful in all it's assigned tasks, with the one glitch of frying the TV camera by pointing it directly towards the sun. This caused the conspiracy theorists to come out in force about UFOs, aliens, etc. Aside from that, the crew was successful in a pinpoint landing, collecting ~ 76 pounds of lunar rock, in setting up the first true science laboratory on another world, the ALSEP (Apollo Lunar Surface Experiment Package) and in returning pieces of the Surveyor 3 lunar probe so that people could see what long term exposure to space did to spacecraft. The CM Yankee Clipper returned safely to Earth on 11/24/69.

A healthy percentage of Americans have heard about the explosion on Apollo 13. Very few have heard about the second most dangerous incident on flying to the Moon, which occurred on Apollo 12. Thirty-seven seconds after launch into a rain storm the rocket was struck twice by lightning. The ionized exhaust trail of the rocket acted like a lightning rod connecting the spacecraft to the ground. Essentially all the electrical systems in the CM were knocked out. Luckily for the crew, the Saturn V rocket's electrical system was self contained and was not affected by the two lightning strikes. The Saturn V continued to perform flawlessly while Mission Control and the Apollo 12 crew tried to figure out what to do. The Electrical, Environmental and Consumables Manager (EECOM) John Aaron remembered a similar pattern in a simulation and made a call, "SCE to Aux" (signal conditioner electronics to auxiliary). The call was obscure, and neither the CDR or the CMP recognized it. Al Bean did and saved the mission, by throwing the appropriate switch. After safely reaching a parking orbit around the Earth the assorted systems were checked, the craft was found flight worthy, and the crew was given permission to go for the Moon.

I know Al and Dick and they are a complete Hoot! They Love to give each other excrement. I have one numismatic item for the flight. I found a 1969 $1 star note, and several months later had them both sign it. As mentioned the two love to play with each other, and Al, after I mentioned about star notes, in his signing gave Dick 5 stars (both are retired US Navy). Here is a picture of the $1 bill and the 2 men.





For those of you just interested in numismatic items that is the end of the thread. For those of you interested in other aspects of Apollo 12 here are other pieces from my collection.

Just to give you an idea of how difficult synchronizing a Moon shot is, here is the processing schedule for Apollo 12. You'll note that there are different tracks for testing (for example ALT CHAM stands for altitude chamber), construction of the Saturn V (AS-507), the Command and Service Module (CSM-108), the Lunar Module (LM-6) and readying the launch pad (SV PAD A).



As mentioned, the second most dangerous event in the flown Apollo program was the launch of Apollo 12. Here is a link to an ~ 4 minute YouTube clip about SCE to Aux:



I am lucky enough to own the two 2-sided (flown) launch checklist pages of Apollo 12 (unfortunately for CoinTalk there is a 20 picture limit for a given post, so I've cut out one of the pages. On it Alan Bean has written SCE to Aux):





During the trip between the Earth and the Moon the LM drew electricity from the CM by an electrical umbilical cord. Here's a pic of Al and myself discussing it. The blue end plugged into the CM Yankee Clipper and the silver colored end plugged into the LM Intrepid. (BTW, this would also be the type of cord used on Apollo 13 to re-power up the CM at the end of the mission, only in this case the electricity came from the LM).





As far as objects that have flown to the surface of the Moon, here's a picture of a lightbulb used in the COAS, a sighting device on the LM that was kind of the 1960's variant of a heads up display. It was used to help the astronauts find the appropriate landing spot on the Moon, and then rendezvous with the CM after the LM has launched from the Moon's surface. The lightbulb helped to light up the grid system in the COAS.



When you are landing or lifting off from the Moon you need to make sure things are properly tied down. Here's one of the LM stowage straps.



Here are a few pictures of Al carrying the ALSEP to it's deploy site, setting it up, and a look back from it to the LM:







Meanwhile, up in orbit, Dick Gordon would be finding one of the "Gotcha" pranks that the backup crew stowed aboard the CM. Here's the first Playmate picture flown to the Moon. FYI the Playmate is DeDe Lind.



While in orbit Dick would have been reviewing checklists to make sure he did the right task, at the right time, in the correct manner. Here's an example of a checklist and just one part of it's index:





In order to keep any given checklist ready at hand Dick would have put it in the larger pocket of his leg assembly that strapped around his leg:



When Dick had a little down time he might have decided to comb his hair or eat a little snack:





After spending roughly 36 hours on the Moon's surface the ascent stage of the LM Intrepid successfully lifted off and docked with the CM Yankee Clipper. The Yankee Clipper returned safely to Earth 4 days later.

One thing that particularly pisses off all the Apollo astronauts is the conspiracy theory that the Moon landings were faked. In 2009 NASA launched the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) which took high definition images of the Moon's surface. Here is a LRO picture of the Apollo 12 landing site. If you look closely you can see not only the LM Intrepid descent stage and Surveyor 3, but also the ALSEP and even the footprints/trails from the astronauts walking on the Moon.



Just think about it. This all occurred 45 years ago...

 

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Thanks for sharing. This was very nice to read/see!

 

Thank you, Skyman! Very nice read, reminder, and wonderful stories and collection. I appreciate the time you spent on this and sharing the history.
Thank you!
-L

 

Thanks, Sy! Gee, if I had known DeDe Lind liked to play strip pool, I would have challenged her to a game.

Chris

 

I think these posts are awesome!

 

Agreed!
-L

 

The only Apollo mission I remember was Apollo 17, but by then moon landings were so "ordinary". My funniest memory of that mission, I was very young, was we were over at a babysitters and watching the news coverage of the men walking on the moon - my brother and I shot out the front door to look at the moon and we swore we could see the astronauts!

What an awesome write up - stirs lots of memories and really makes you appreciate what incredible heroes the astronauts were - more so than politicians, agitators etc, because these men literally risked all to expand the boundaries of human existence. In essence they are the Columbus, Magellan of our time.

 

cool collection. enjoyed looking at it.

 

Cool thread, and yep, I remember Dede.......

 

Moon men, Woodstock, Viet Nam...
Crazy Sixties!

 

I don't know about you guys, but I'm groovin' on Dee Dee.......


Spectacular post Sky Guy.......

 

Except for the very last moon landing in 1972 and the tail end of the Vietnam War no memories from those heady times.