Apollo XII

Chapter 1 · Fall 1969

Before Launch

Apollo 11 had come down about four miles from its target. Geologists needed better than that, so Apollo XII’s first job was to prove a pinpoint landing could be done, by setting down beside Surveyor III, an unmanned probe that had landed in the Ocean of Storms two years earlier.

Conrad and Bean would set up the Apollo Lunar Surface Experiment Package, a science station with a seismometer for moonquakes, a magnetometer, and sensors for the Moon’s thin atmosphere and for high-energy particles, and they would bring home pieces of Surveyor for study. Dick would fly Yankee Clipper and keep it waiting in lunar orbit.

Chapter 3 · Ascent

The Lightning Strike

Liftoff came on schedule at 11:22 a.m. Thirty-six seconds later, about 2,000 meters up, the Saturn V was struck by lightning; its long trail of ionized exhaust had given the charge a path. Sixteen seconds after that, a second strike hit at 4,400 meters.

“I was aware of a white light,” Conrad recalled. “The next thing I noted was that I heard the master alarm ringing in my ears, and I glanced over to the caution and warning panel and it was a sight to behold.” Nearly every electrical warning light was on, and the guidance platform had dropped out.

In Mission Control, flight controller John Aaron recognized the pattern from a simulation a year earlier and called for an obscure switch: “SCE to Aux.” Hardly anyone knew what it meant. Al Bean knew where the switch was, and moments later the data was back.

They reached Earth orbit, realigned the guidance system and got the go for the Moon. What the crew wasn’t told was that Mission Control feared the lightning had damaged the pyrotechnics that deploy the parachutes. That wouldn’t affect the landing, so the mission went on. “Al Bean, you’re on your way to the Moon,” Conrad said. “Yeah,” Bean answered. “Y’all can come along if you like.”

What happened when you got hit by lightning? “We had more warning lights than we ever saw during training. But we all did our jobs. Pete was telling mission control about our situation. I was making sure the booster (Saturn V) was functioning properly. And Al was busy trying to get the electrical system back on line.”

Were you scared? “It really wasn’t a frightening experience because we were too busy taking care of business to think about it.”

Chapter 5 · Nov 19–20, 1969

Ocean of Storms

Intrepid came down toward a pattern of craters the crew called the Snowman. Surveyor III sat halfway up the wall of the crater that made its middle. “Hey, there it is! There it is!” Conrad called when he first saw it. “Right down the middle of the road!” Dust hid the surface for the last 50 feet, and at 1:54 a.m. EST on November 19 he set Intrepid down blind, 535 feet (163 meters) from Surveyor. It was the pinpoint landing they had come to make.

Conrad stepped off the ladder with words he had written months earlier, to win a $500 bet with an Italian journalist who believed NASA scripted what astronauts said: “Whoopee! Man, that may have been a small one for Neil, but it’s a long one for me.” He never collected.

On the first moonwalk they set up the science station 130 meters from the lander. The television camera failed early, probably after it was pointed toward the Sun. Their cuff checklists held surprises from the backup crew, Dave Scott and Jim Irwin: cartoons of Snoopy, and a few pinups annotated in proper geological terms.

On the second moonwalk they covered more than a kilometer, reached Surveyor III and removed its television camera, its scoop and pieces of cable and tubing for study back on Earth. In all they spent 7 hours and 45 minutes outside and came back looking, Conrad said, like “a couple of bituminous coal miners.” On the morning of November 20, Intrepid lifted off to rejoin Yankee Clipper.

Chapter 7 · Nov 24, 1969

Recovery

Apollo XII splashed down in the Pacific about 600 kilometers (375 miles) east of Pago Pago, 3.5 kilometers from the recovery ship USS Hornet. The parachutes worked; the lightning had not hurt them. The landing was rough, though: a 16 mm movie camera broke loose and struck Al Bean on the forehead, and Conrad bandaged the cut.

Swimmers handed in respirators and coveralls, and the crew climbed out into the raft. After four days aboard ship to Hawaii and a flight to Houston, Conrad, Bean and Gordon began 11 days of quarantine in the Lunar Receiving Laboratory on November 29.

The mission was a complete success. The pinpoint landing meant astronauts could now go where scientists wanted them to. The crew brought home nearly 75 pounds (34 kilograms) of lunar samples, and the instruments they left behind kept sending data.