Apollo 12 launched on November 14,1969, at 11:22 am Eastern Standard Time,under the command of veteran astronaut Pete Conrad,who had been second pilot on Gemini 5 in August 1965 and commanded Gemini 11 a year later. The command module pilot was Richard ‘Dick’ Gordon,who had been Conrad’s second pilot on Gemini 11,and the lunar module pilot was rookie Alan Bean,who replaced CC Williams,killed in an airplane accident in October 1967. The launch was marred by two lightning strikes,at 35 and 50 seconds after liftoff,but the crew was able to reset their onboard electrical systems and at 2 hours 10 minutes since launch Mission Control gave them a Go to proceed with their mission.
Said mission involved a lunar precision landing near a known target,in this case the Surveyor 3 space probe,launched in April 1967. The probe had landed in the Oceanus Procellarum region of the Moon not far from the Soviet Luna 13 probe. Conrad and Bean would be tasked with returning pieces of the probe to Earth so that scientists could evaluate how prolonged lunar exposure could affect materials.
The trans-lunar cruise phase of the mission proceeded with only minor issues. At 30 hours 55 minutes Gordon fired their onboard engine for 10 seconds to refine their trajectory. Conrad and Bean later on conducted a televised tour of their lunar module,Intrepid (the call sign of the command module was Yankee Clipper. Both names would later be applied to Space Shuttles).
The lunar orbital insertion burn came off nominally at 83 hours 25 minutes. 4 hours later,after a TV transmission during which the crew showed viewers the near side of the Moon,another burn modified their orbital path. The fourth mission day concluded with another trip into Intrepid to check its systems.
The next day Conrad and Bean got up bright and early,entereing Intrepid for the third time at 104 hours 51 minutes since launch. Their separation from Yankee Clipper was effected successfully at 108 hours. After more systems checks,Conrad fired Intrepid's descent engine at 109 hours 23 minutes. This 12 second burn lowered Intrepid's orbit so that at its closest approach its altitude over the lunar surface would be 10 nautical miles. An hour later the engine was fired again to effect the powered descent to the lunar surface.
During the lunar approach phase,Conrad used the guidance system to perform several 'redesignations' of their lunar landing site,as a test for future lunar landings. At 110 hours 28 minutes,Bean sighted their landing area and confirmed to Conrad that they were coming down more on less straight on target. The landing radar dropped out twice during final approach,and just as on Apollo 11 the fuel level dropped rapidly,but at 110 hours 32 minutes (1:54 am on November 19) Conrad successfully landed Intrepid on the Ocean of Storms.
The crew spent a few hours preparing to exit the LM onto the lunar surface. Early on in this period,at 114 hours 24 minutes,Gordon reported that he had a good visual sighting on the landing sites of both the LM and Surveyor. This was enough to confirm that Intrepid had indeed landed on target. 115 hours and 22 minutes after launch,Charles Conrad became the third man on the Moon. His words at that moment were "Whoopie! Man,that may have been a small one for Neil,but it's a long one for me", reflecting his playful nature. Conrad spent the first few minutes of the moonwalk familiarizing himself with the lunar environment,and Bean joined him at 115 hours 50 minutes.
The main objective of EVA-1 was the setup of the first Apollo Lunar Surface Experiments Package,or ALSEP for short. On Apollo 12,the ALSEP consisted of a magnetometer,a lunar seismic experiment, a solar wind study,and a lunar atmospheric detector. Deployment and activation of the ALSEP began at 117 hours and lasted 40 minutes. During this time,while pointing the lunar surface TV camera,Bean accidentally aimed it into the Sun and caused it to short-circuit. The crew made a quick geological traverse back to Intrepid,collecting various representative lunar samples,before closing out the EVA at 119 hours,even. A few minutes after the completion of the moonwalk,at 119 hours 45 minutes,Gordon burned his onboard engine to correct Yankee Clipper's orbit.
The second moonwalk began at 131 hours 32 minutes. The early phase of the moonwalk involved a geological traverse around several craters in the vicinity of the landing site,the crew using their time to pick representative samples from each crater. They arrived at Surveyor at 133 hours 42 minutes and spent 18 minutes at its landing site,removing the TV camera for return to Earth. EVA-2 ended at 135 hours 20 minutes:the total moonwalk time was 7 hours and 45 minutes,spread across 3 hours and 56 minutes for EVA-1 and 3 hours 50 minutes for EVA-2.
Takeoff from the lunar surface was at 142 hours 3 minutes:the ascent engine's thrust was so strong that it knocked over the US flag that Conrad had planted on the surface. Rendezvous with Yankee Clipper went smoothly,and docking occurred at 145 hours 35 minutes. After Conrad and Bean transferred to the CSM (naked,due to Gordon's concern that they might contaminate the cabin with lunar dust,although they transferred the lunar samples in boxes) Intrepid's ascent stage was jettisoned and commanded to crash-dive onto the Moon to calibrate the lunar seismometer. The impact was at 149 hours 55 minutes,and was so strong that it caused the Moon to 'ring like a bell' for nearly an hour following. The crew spent nearly another day in lunar orbit,mainly taking photographs of future lunar landing sites,and left orbit at 172 hours 26 minutes. Trans-earth coast was nominal,requiring only two course correction at 188 hours 25 minutes and 241 hours 25 minutes. At 244 hours 34 minutes,after a nominal re-entry,Apollo 12 splashed down in the Pacific and its crew was quickly retrieved by the Hornet,the same ship which had recovered Apollo 11 5 months earlier. During the splashdown,a loose camera hit Bean on the head,but he recovered quickly,requiring only a few stitches.
Apollo 12 was Conrad's third of five missions between 1965 and 1980,Bean's first of six between 1969 and 1986,and Gordon's second of three between 1966 and 1976.
id you work on any planetary missions? Like Mars 11 or the Yupiter probes?