Question: Who commanded Apollo 12, which launched on this day in 1969?
Answer: Charles “Pete” Conrad Jr.
Conrad commanded Apollo 12 alongside Richard Gordon and Alan Bean. They lifted off from Kennedy Space Center at 11:22 a.m. on Nov. 14, 1969, into a rainy sky, and lightning struck the rocket twice within its first minute. Ground controllers sorted out the resulting glitches, and the mission pressed on.
Five days later, Conrad and Bean set down in the Moon’s Ocean of Storms, close enough to steer to NASA’s unmanned Surveyor 3 probe, which had landed more than two years earlier. That pinpoint landing proved astronauts could reach a specific spot on the lunar surface. Conrad, who stood about 5-foot-6, became the third man to walk on the Moon and joked as he stepped off the ladder, “Whoopie! Man, that may have been a small one for Neil, but that’s a long one for me.”
