Kind: Crewed lunar landing (H)
State: Successful
Place: Moon
Operator: NASA
Start:
Duration: 10 days, 4 hours, 36 minutes, 24 seconds
"Life's like a movie, write your own ending. Keep believing, keep pretending." - Jim Henson
Rocket: Saturn V SA-507
Kind: NASA
Manufacturer: CSM: North American RockwellLM: Grumman
Mass: 101,127 pounds (45,870 kg)
Launch Site: Kennedy LC-39A
"Requesting permission for flyby." Maverick - Top Gun
Reference System: Selenocentric
1º Orbit: Lunar
Place: Lunar
Region: Ocean of Storms 3°00′45″S 23°25′18″W / 3.01239°S 23.42157°W / -3.01239, -23.42157
Date: November 19, 1969, 06:54:35 UTC
Component: Lunar Module (LM)
Apollo 12 was the sixth crewed flight in the United States Apollo program and the second to land on the Moon. It was launched on November 14, 1969, from the Kennedy Space Center, Florida, four months after Apollo 11. Commander Charles "Pete" Conrad and Apollo 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. On November 19 Conrad and Bean achieved a precise landing at their expected location within walking distance of the site of the Surveyor 3 robotic 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 pointed the camera at the Sun and the camera's sensor was destroyed. On one of two moonwalks they visited Surveyor 3 and removed some parts for return to Earth. Lunar Module Intrepid lifted off from the Moon on November 20 and docked with the command module, which then, after completing its 45th lunar orbit, traveled back to Earth. The Apollo 12 mission ended on November 24 with a successful splashdown.