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Apollo 12 (AS-507)
Going beyond Apollo 11

The Apollo 12 mission was the second manned lunar landing mission. Its objective was to perform detailed scientific lunar exploration. The space vehicle with a crew of Charles (Pete) Conrad, Jr., the commander; Richard F. Gordon, the command module pilot; and Alan L. Bean, the lunar module pilot, was launched from Kennedy Space Center, Fla., at 11:22:00 EST on November 14, 1969.
A precision landing was made using automatic guidance, with only small manual corrections required in the final phases of descent. Touchdown occured at 110.5 hr ground elapsed time (GET), at a point only 600 feet (183 meters) from the target point, the Surveyor III spacecraft. The landing was in the Ocean of Storms.
This precision landing was of great significance to the future lunar exploration program, because landing points in rough terrain of great scientific interest could now be targeted.
The first of two planned extravehicular activiy (EVA) periods began at 115 hr GET. A color television camera mounted on the descent stage provided live television coverage of the descent of both astronauts to the lunar surface. Television coverage was subsequently lost because of the inadvertent pointing of the camera at the Sun.
The crew emplaced the U.S. flag and the solar-wind composition experiment. They collected lunar samples and core-tube specimens during this first EVA period which lasted approximately four hours.
Following a seven-hour rest period, the second EVA period began at 131.5 hr GET. The two astronauts started a geology traverse. The traverse covered approximately 4300 feet (1311 meters) and lasted 3 hours and 50 minutes. During the traverse, documented samples, core-tube samples, trench site samples, and gas analysis samples were collected. The Apollo 12 samples were mostly basalts, dark-colored igneous rocks, and they were hundreds of millions of years younger than the rocks collected on Apollo 11.
The crew photographed Surveyor III, which landed on the lunar surface in April 1967, and retrieved a painted tube, an unpainted tube, the Surveyor III scoop and the television camera. The television camera is now on display at the National Air and Space Museum.
Another rest period and a final checkout preceded the liftoff of the lunar module ascent stage at 142 hr GET. Following crew transfer, the ascent stage was remotely guided to impact on the lunar surface to provide an active seismic source for the passive seismic experiment that had been emplaced. The command module landed in the Pacific Ocean at 244.5 hr GET.
From NASA SP-235, Apollo 12 Preliminary Science Report.
Mission patch
Factoids
  • Lunar Module - Intrepid ; Command and Service Module - Yankee Clipper.
  • Launched from Kennedy Space Center Launch Complex 39A.
  • The Apollo 12 landing site is designated Site 7.
  • Third flight for Conrad (Gemini V and XI), second for Gordon (Gemini XI) and first for Bean.
  • The crew remained in quarantine for 21 days from completion of the second EVA.
  • Primary objectives included:
    1. Perform inspection, survey and sampling in lunar mare area
    2. Deploy an Apollo Lunar Surface Experiment Package (ALSEP).
    3. Develop techniques for a point landing capability
    4. Develop capability to work in the lunar environment
    5. Obtain photographs of candidate exploration sites

  • Secondary objective was to the retrieve portions of the Surveyor III spacecraft which had been exposed to the lunar environment since the unmanned spacecraft soft-landed on the inner slope of a crater on April 20, 1967.
  • Flags from 136 nations, the UN, 50 states and four U.S. possessions were aboard the lunar module.
  • The backup crew members were David R. Scott, commander; Alfred M. Worden, command module pilot; and James B. Irwin, lunar module pilot.
  • Mission Duration: 244 hr 36 min 24 sec.

    • Images from mission
    Standard figures from Press Release package.

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    Michael J. Tuttle, June 28, 1995