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Apollo 12 - Saturn Apollo Program

Apollo 12 - Saturn Apollo Program

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Summary

The second manned lunar landing mission, Apollo 12, launched from launch pad 39-A at Kennedy Space Center in Florida on November 14, 1969 via a Saturn V launch vehicle. The Saturn V vehicle was developed by the Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) under the direction of Dr. Wernher von Braun. Aboard Apollo 12 was a crew of three astronauts: Alan L. Bean, pilot of the Lunar Module (LM), Intrepid; Richard Gordon, pilot of the Command Module (CM), Yankee Clipper; and Spacecraft Commander Charles Conrad. The LM, Intrepid, landed astronauts Conrad and Bean on the lunar surface in what’s known as the Ocean of Storms while astronaut Richard Gordon piloted the CM, Yankee Clipper, in a parking orbit around the Moon. Lunar soil activities included the deployment of the Apollo Lunar Surface Experiments Package (ALSEP), finding the unmanned Surveyor 3 that landed on the Moon on April 19, 1967, and collecting 75 pounds (34 kilograms) of rock samples. This is the fourteenth of 25 images captured by the crew in attempt to provide a 360 degree Lunar surface scene. Apollo 12 safely returned to Earth on November 24, 1969.

Apollo 12 launched from Cape Kennedy on Nov. 14, 1969, into a cloudy, rain-swept sky. The flight plan for Apollo 12 was similar to that of Apollo 11, except Apollo 12 was to fly a higher inclination to the lunar equator and leave the free-return trajectory after the second translunar midcourse correction. Prior to lunar orbit insertion, a telecast was made to Earth on Nov. 17, showing the Earth, moon, spacecraft interior and intravehicular transfer of the crew. Later that day, when Apollo 12 went behind the moon at about 97 miles up, the first lunar orbit insertion burn began. The burn lasted for about six minutes, placing the spacecraft into an elliptical orbit of 69 by 195 miles. On Nov. 19, with the LM behind the moon in the 14th orbit, and some 109 hours, 23 minutes into the mission, the descent orbit insertion maneuver began. With Conrad controlling the descent semi-manually for the last 500 feet, a precision landing occurred at about 110 hours, 32 minutes into the mission, and closer to the target than expected. Intrepid landed in the Ocean of Storms at 3 degrees, 11 hours, 51 minutes south, and 23 degrees, 23 minutes, and 7.5 seconds west. Landing was about 120 feet northeast of Head Crater, and about 535 feet northwest from where Surveyor III stood in its crater. Apollo 12 touched down approximately 950 miles west of where Apollo 11 had landed. Three hours after the landing and before the first extravehicular activity or, EVA, began. Richard Gordon, orbiting 69 miles up in the Yankee Clipper, was able to see both the Intrepid and Surveyor through the use of a 28-power sextant telescope. Conrad opened Intrepid's hatch at 115 hours, 10 minutes into the mission to begin the first lunar EVA for the Apollo 12 crew. In their first lunar exploration, Conrad spent three hours, 39 minutes outside Intrepid, and Bean logged two hours, 58 minutes on the lurain. Crew Charles Conrad Jr., Commander Alan L. Bean, Lunar Module Pilot Richard F. Gordon Jr., Command Module Pilot

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Date

14/11/1969
place

Location

Marshall Spaceflight Center, Huntsville, Madison County, Alabama, United States, 3580834.63076, -86.66505
Google Map of 34.6307645, -86.665052
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Source

NASA
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Copyright info

Public Domain Dedication (CC0)

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