Part X - Space Exploration
On 29th August Apollo 12 mission was launched from Kennedy Space Center in Florida with three American astronauts on board: Charles "Pete" Conrad, Richard F. Gordon and Alan Bean. Five days later on 4th September Conrad came out from Lunar lander and said:
Whoopie! Man, that may have been a small one for Neil, but that's a long one for me. Color camera which were used by Bean was destroyed by Sun after astronaut pointed it directly into the star. 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 removed some of its pieces and returned them to Earth. Later NASA scientists found Streptococcus mitis inside these parts. After scientific examination did by American and later Soviet experts it was confirmed that this bacteria lived on the Moon inside probe since 1967. This expertise will be a source of conjecture that Moon can be inhabitable by anaerobic bacterias.
Next Lunar flight was Soviet - "Korolev" spacecraft* was launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome on Nosstiel-1 rocket on 12th October 1969 with Yuri Gagarin and Gherman Titov on board. After landing on 22th October on Moon surface Yuri Gagarin took a photo of rising Earth above Lunar surface which will be later most known photo taken in space. Later the took a few part from Lunokhod-1 rover and left special box with several Earth bacterias as experiment taken by Soviet scientists to examine which Earth organisms can live on Moon surface.
On 20th February 1970 Aquarius lander from Apollo 13 mission landed on the Moon. After performing several experiments crew returned to Earth. Next missions will be Apollo 14 launched on 30th May 1970, Apollo 15 [first manned rover on the Moon] launched on 1st September 1970, Apollo 16 launched on 14th December 1970, Apollo 17 launched on 15th March 1971, Apollo 18 launched on 2nd July 1971, Apollo 19 launched on 6th November 1971 and Apollo 20 launched on 1st January 1972.
List of American astronauts on Lunar surface during Apollo program:
Apollo 11:
- Neil Armstrong
- Buzz Aldrin
Apollo 12:
Apollo 13:
Apollo 14:
- Alan Shepard
- Edgar Mitchell
First play in golf on lunar surface.
Apollo 15:
First manned lunar rover.
Apollo 16:
Apollo 17:
- Eugene Cernan
- Harrison Schmitt
Apollo 18:
- Dick Gordon
- Michael Collins
Apollo 19:
Apollo 20:
- Deke Slayton
- Harrison Schmitt
After successful land on the Moon OKB-1 was converted by Alexei Kosygin into Soviet Space Agency on 13th April 1969.
During 1969-1972 Soviet Space Agency performed six lunar landings:
Soyuz - 12th April 1969:
Korolev - 12th October 1969:
Rodina - 1st April 1970:
Mir - 5th July 1970:
- Gherman Titov
- First play in football on lunar surface
Tsander 7 November 1970:
Tsiolkovsky 14th February 1971:
- Valentina Tereshkova
- "From Lunar surface first female astronaut wishes you a happy Valentine's Day"
*Sergei Khrushchev ATL proposed that all manned spaceships should be named as космический корабль which will be later translated in English as spacecraft.