Topic: Apollo 12 50th anniversary (Nov. 14-24, 2019)
Robert Pearlman Editor
Posts: 43576 From: Houston, TX Registered: Nov 1999
posted 11-13-2019 05:25 PM
NASA photo release
Apollo 12 Launches – Nov. 14, 1969
This week in 1969, the Apollo 12 mission launched from NASA's Kennedy Space Center, carrying astronauts Charles Conrad, Alan Bean and Richard Gordon. The primary mission objectives included an extensive series of lunar exploration tasks by the lunar module as well as deployment of the Apollo Lunar Surface Experiments Package, which was left on the moon's surface to gather seismic, scientific and engineering data over an extended period of time.
Apollo 12 was the second crewed lunar landing of the Apollo program. The mission concluded when the Apollo 12 crew successfully splashed down in the Pacific Ocean on Nov. 24, 1969.
Now through December 2022, NASA is marking the 50th anniversary of the Apollo program that landed a dozen astronauts on the moon between July 1969 and December 1972.
Robert Pearlman Editor
Posts: 43576 From: Houston, TX Registered: Nov 1999
posted 11-14-2019 10:07 AM
NASA video
Apollo 12 launched from Cape Kennedy on Nov. 14, 1969, into a cloudy, rain-swept sky. Launch controllers lost telemetry contact at 36 seconds, and again at 52 seconds, when the Saturn V launch vehicle was struck by lightning.
In addition to continuing Apollo's lunar exploration tasks, Charles Conrad, Alan Bean, and Richard Gordon deployed the Apollo Lunar Surface Experiments Package, a set of investigations left on the Moon's surface to gather data.
Headshot Member
Posts: 891 From: Vancouver, WA, USA Registered: Feb 2012
posted 11-14-2019 01:59 PM
I remember this day, 50 years ago, very well. The professor giving our Celestial Mechanics 306 class decided to illustrate how to derive some of the simpler equations governing just the launch of Apollo 12. I never watched another Saturn V launch after that without thinking of all the variables that had to be taken into consideration. It was like showing someone who eats sausage, how the sausage is made.
Robert Pearlman Editor
Posts: 43576 From: Houston, TX Registered: Nov 1999
The astronauts on board the International Space Station paid tribute to the second mission to land humans on the moon — 50 years to the day after the Apollo 12 crew launched.
Expedition 61 commander Luca Parmitano of the European Space Agency (ESA) joined NASA astronauts Drew Morgan, Christina Koch and Jessica Meir in dressing up as Apollo-era flight controllers on Thursday (Nov. 14), wearing white button-down shirts, narrow ties, pocket protectors and black horn-rimmed glasses.
"Today, on the 50th anniversary of the launch of Apollo 12, we pay tribute to the flight control and ground support teams and all who worked behind the scenes to enable us to send the first humans to the moon," wrote Meir on Twitter.
Space Cadet Carl Member
Posts: 225 From: Lake Orion, Michigan Registered: Feb 2006
posted 11-14-2019 05:50 PM
I was really excited about Apollo 12 because it was going to be the first color television broadcast from the surface of the moon. I remember watching live as Alan Bean pointed the TV camera directly into the sun and I started yelling at my television set: "NO!! STOP!! He's pointing it at the sun!!" It was too late. The networks all showed puppets and staged simulations for the remainder of the two EVAs.
Mike Dixon Member
Posts: 1428 From: Kew, Victoria, Australia Registered: May 2003
posted 11-14-2019 05:58 PM
No doubt that was a major setback. The overdone B&W photography didn't help either.
oly Member
Posts: 971 From: Perth, Western Australia Registered: Apr 2015
posted 11-14-2019 09:15 PM
The astronauts on board the International Space Station paid tribute to the second mission to land humans on the moon — 50 years to the day after the Apollo 12 crew launched.
I appreciate the amount of thought, planning, and effort that these crew and NASA put in to commemorate the Apollo experiences of 50 years ago. It shows great appreciation and respect to past efforts, and brings some lighthearted fun into the current program.
posted 11-13-2019 05:25 PM
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