What happened when lightning struck Apollo 12 during launch?
Lightning struck the Saturn V 36.5 seconds after liftoff, triggered by the vehicle itself, knocking all three fuel cells offline and disrupting the telemetry stream at Mission Control. A second strike at 52 seconds knocked out the attitude indicator. EECOM John Aaron recognized the failure pattern from a prior ground test and called for switching the signal conditioning electronics to auxiliary power; Lunar Module Pilot Alan Bean threw the switch, restoring telemetry and allowing the mission to continue.
How did Apollo 12 land so close to the Surveyor 3 probe?
Astronomer Ewen Whitaker identified Surveyor 3's precise location by studying images taken by the probe itself and comparing them against photographs of thousands of similar craters under a microscope, pinpointing the probe via two distinctive rocks nearby. Commander Pete Conrad trained to recognize a cluster of craters he called "the Snowman" and landed the Lunar Module Intrepid on the 19th of November 1969, just 535 feet from Surveyor 3.
Who was the Apollo 12 crew and what was their background?
Commander Charles "Pete" Conrad, Command Module Pilot Richard F. Gordon, and Lunar Module Pilot Alan L. Bean were all U.S. Navy commanders. Conrad and Gordon had previously flown together on Gemini 11. Bean was making his first spaceflight on Apollo 12. All three had trained as naval aviators and completed the Naval Test Pilot School at Patuxent River Naval Air Station.
What scientific instruments did Apollo 12 leave on the Moon?
Apollo 12 deployed the first full Apollo Lunar Surface Experiments Package, or ALSEP, which included a seismometer, a Lunar Surface Magnetometer, a Lunar Atmosphere Detector, a Lunar Ionosphere Detector, a Solar Wind Spectrometer, and a Dust Detector. The instruments were powered by a plutonium-fueled radioisotope thermoelectric generator, the first use of atomic energy on a crewed NASA spacecraft. The ALSEP experiments were deactivated on the 30th of September 1977 due to budget constraints.
What did Pete Conrad say when he stepped onto the Moon during Apollo 12?
Conrad's first words on the lunar surface were: "Whoopie! Man, that may have been a small one for Neil, but that's a long one for me." The remark was not improvised; Conrad had made a bet with journalist Oriana Fallaci that he would say whatever he chose, after she questioned whether NASA had scripted Neil Armstrong's famous words. Conrad later said he was never able to collect the money.
Where is the Apollo 12 command module Yankee Clipper today?
The Apollo 12 command module Yankee Clipper is on display at the Virginia Air and Space Center in Hampton, Virginia. After the mission it was shown at the Paris Air Show, then placed at NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton; ownership transferred to the Smithsonian Institution in July 1971.