Fifty Years Ago: Apollo 11 was a Tough Act to Follow, but Apollo 12 Made a Pinpoint Lunar Landing

Astronaut Charles "Pete" Conrad begins descending the ladder from the Apollo XII lunar module "Intrepid" in this photograph taken by lunar module pilot Alan Bean on November 19, 1969.  (Apollo film magazine 46Y/ Project Apollo Archive)

By Steve Milner
Contributing Writer

“Whoopie! Man, that might have been one small step for Neil (Armstrong), but it was a long one for me.”

So said astronaut Charles “Pete” Conrad, Jr. as he slowly descended the ladder of the Apollo 12 lunar module, call sign Intrepid, on November 19, 1969, becoming the third person to walk on the moon’s surface 50 years ago.

In this official portrait of the prime crew of the Apollo 12 lunar landing mission taken in September 1969 we see (from left) Mission Commander Charles "Pete" Conrad Jr., Command Module pilot, Richard F. Gordon Jr. and Lunar Module pilot Alan L. Bean. The Apollo 12 mission was the second lunar landing mission in which the third and fourth American astronauts, both naval officers, set foot upon the Moon. (NASA on the Commons image S69-38852)

As planned, Apollo astronauts Pete Conrad and Alan Bean landed their lunar module (background) about 600 feet from the Surveyor 3 spacecraft, launched to the moon two years earlier. On their second extravehicular activity (EVA-2) conducted on November 20, 1969, they removed some components for study on earth. (Project Apollo Archive)

Unlike Apollo 11, which missed its primary landing site, Apollo 12 touched down precisely as planned in the “Ocean of Storms,” about 600 feet from the unmanned Surveyor 3 spacecraft that had landed on the lunar surface two-and-a-half years earlier. The astronauts brought back some of Surveyor’s parts to earth for specialists to examine how well they withstood this harsh environment. While Apollo 11 named its landing site, “Tranquility Base,” Apollo 12 astronauts didn’t designate a catchy name for theirs, other than to refer to it as the geological, cratered “Ocean of Storms.”

The official crew insignia for Apollo 12, the United States' second lunar landing mission. The clipper ship signifies that the crew is all Navy and symbolically relates the era of the clipper ship to the era of space flight. The portion of the moon shown is representative of the Ocean of Storms area in which Apollo 12 will land. (NASA illustration)

Lunar Module Pilot Alan Lavern Bean, nicknamed “Beano,” had followed Conrad to the surface, while Command Module Pilot, Richard Francis Gordon, Jr. orbited overhead in their mother ship, call sign “Yankee Clipper.” Here, he would orbit the moon alone 45 times while keeping “Yankee Clipper” on target to receive his crewmates after their lunar stay.

The huge 363-foot tall Apollo 12 space vehicle (Spacecraft 108/Lunar Module 6/ Saturn 507) lifts off from Pad A, Launch Complex 39, Kennedy Space Center at 11:22 a.m. on November 14, 1969.  The lightening strike that hit the space vehicle moments after launch was not captured in this image. (NASA on the Commons/ Image S69-58564)

Apollo 12 started on a rough, potentially dangerous launch from Kennedy Space Center on November 14, 1969. I can still see that incredibly long lightning strike as I watched it hit their Saturn V rocket at T+36 seconds, as it rose slowly skyward during a rainstorm. I wondered then why NASA had launched Apollo 12 in marginal weather conditions. At that time, some felt that this launch proceeded that day because then-President Richard Nixon was watching its liftoff at the Spaceport’s VIP site, three-and-a-half miles from Launch Complex 39A, and NASA didn’t want to disappoint him. I hoped that wasn’t the case; that the Space Agency would have jeopardized the astronauts’ safety for political reasons.

Dr. Thomas Paine, NASA Administrator, shields the First Lady, Mrs. Pat Nixon, from rain while the President and daughter Tricia, foreground, watch Apollo 12 pre-launch activities at the Kennedy Space Center viewing area on November 14, 1969. Following the successful liftoff, the President congratulated the launch crew from within the control center. (NASA photo courtesy of Steve Milner)

This lightning strike, measuring the length of the 36-story space vehicle, also struck and damaged its launch pad. Conrad correctly deduced later that as the Saturn V lifted off, it had trailed a column of flame and ionized gases that stretched to the ground, becoming the world’s longest lightning rod.

After the successful launch of Apollo 12, President Richard Nixon congratulates NASA and contractor personnel within the spaceport's Launch Control Center. (NASA photo courtesy of Steve Milner)

When this anomaly occurred, numerous spacecraft panel lights flashed simultaneously, signaling that critical systems aboard the Apollo 12 command module weren’t functioning and were damaged. Neither the astronauts nor their ground controllers had seen as many warning lights activated at the same time in their training mission simulators.

Not only did Apollo 12 have an all-Navy flight crew, but the Navy's Atlantic Fleet Manned Space Recovery Force (CTF-140) was dedicated to their survival. From their headquarters in Washington DC, Chief Warrant Officer James D. Parker of Pequot, Minnesota, and Lieutenant Carl J. Newberg of Hinsdale, Illinois, monitor mission reports from ships and aircraft of the Atlantic Fleet. (National Archives and Records Administration via Naval History and Heritage Command)

Despite this unexpected and scary situation, the flight crew reacted calmly and quickly, troubleshooting these anomalies, which included mostly false readouts. Fortunately, the lightning strike didn’t activate the Spacecraft’s launch escape system, (LES). If this had happened, it would have jettisoned their spacecraft away from its launch vehicle, and the spacecraft would have been, hopefully, carried by parachute to the ground, scrubbing the lunar mission. But the space vehicle continued safely to earth orbit. A second lighting strike also hit the Saturn V while it was en route to earth orbit.

Seen from the command module "Yankee Clipper," the lunar module "Intrepid" orients itself high above the lunar surface before deorbiting on November 19, 1969. (Project Apollo Archive)

Following mating with its lunar module and Translunar Injection (TLI), the astronauts began their three-day, nearly 250,000-mile journey to the moon. After orbiting the moon and separating their lunar module from their command module, Conrad and Bean descended to the moon’s surface. During their more than 31 hours on the moon, they conducted two Extra Vehicular Activities (EVAs), each lasting three-and-a-half hours, visited several craters, gathered 75 pounds of lunar samples and walked farther and explored more lunar terrain than Apollo 11 astronauts Armstrong and “Buzz” Aldrin had done.

The Passive Seismic Experiment (PSE) module deployed as a part of Apollo 12's Apollo Lunar Surface Experiments Package (ALSEP), which was deployed on five of the six successful missions. It consists of a seismometer surrounded by an apron of aluminized Mylar to reduce surface temperature fluctuations, recording moonquakes and meteorite impacts.  (Project Apollo Archive)

They also set up the nuclear-powered Apollo Lunar Surface Experiments Package (ALSEP), which quickly sent data back to earth. But among the Apollo 12 crew’s crowning achievements, in addition to the unique rocks they brought back, was their precise landing near the Surveyor 3 spacecraft.

The Anti-Submarine Warfare Support Aircraft Carrier USS Hornet (CVS 12) prepares to recover the Apollo Twelve Command Module following its splashdown southeast of the island of Samoa, November 24, 1969, after its landing. (National Archives and Records Administration via Naval History and Heritage Command)

On November 20, Conrad and Bean lifted off in the ascent stage of their lunar module and rendezvoused and docked with their command module that Gordon was piloting. Four days later, they splashed down in the Pacific Ocean and were taken aboard the mission’s primary recovery ship, USS Hornet (CVS 12), the same vessel that had picked up the Apollo 11 crew. Like the Apollo 11 crew, Conrad, Gordon and Bean were isolated to ensure they didn’t bring back lunar germs.

Editor's Note: In addition to serving as public affairs officer for 17 years at Norfolk Naval Shipyard, Steve Milner was also a public affairs contractor with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration at Cape Canaveral during the manned Gemini, Apollo and Skylab programs.

A Ringside View of the Moon Shots, Part 10: "For All Mankind"

The Apollo 11 lunar landing mission crew, pictured from left to right, Neil A. Armstrong, commander; Michael Collins, command module pilot; and Edwin E. Aldrin Jr., lunar module pilot, May 1, 1969. (NASA image S69-31739 via NASA on the Commons/Flickr)

By Steve Milner
Contributing Writer


Postscript: The astronauts in later years…

After retiring from NASA in 1971, Neil Armstrong, a former U.S. Navy combat fighter and test pilot, taught engineering classes for several years at the University of Cincinnati. He mostly avoided publicity after Apollo 11 and died at 82, on August 25, 2012, due to complications from cardiac surgery. His ashes were scattered at sea, and a lunar crater was named for him.

Edwin Aldrin, 89, who strongly advocates for our nation to send astronauts to Mars, was a front-row guest at President Donald Trump’s 2019 State of the Union Address. He legally changed his first name from Edwin to “Buzz” in the 1980s, and the former combat pilot retired from the Air Force as a colonel.  The dissertation he wrote earning a doctorate in astronautics from Massachusetts Institute of Technology on the subject of orbital spacecraft rendezvous was inspired by his experiences targeting enemy MiGs during the Korean War.

On July 21, 2009, Apollo 11 astronauts, from left, Michael Collins, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin stand during a recognition ceremony at the U.S House of Representatives Committee on Science and Technology tribute to the Apollo 11 astronauts at the Cannon House Office Building in Washington DC. The committee presented the three Apollo 11 astronauts with a framed copy of House Resolution 607 honoring their achievement, and announced passage of legislation awarding them and John Glenn the Congressional Gold Medal.  (NASA image by Bill Ingalls via NASA on the Commons/Flickr)

Michael Collins, 88, retired from the Air Force as a major general and later was an Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs, the director of the National Air and Space Museum, an undersecretary at the Smithsonian Institution and eventually an aerospace company executive.

The Apollo 11 backup crew trained as vigorously as the primary one. Its commander was James Lovell, who flew on Apollo 8, in addition to two Gemini missions. His Apollo 11 backup crewmembers were William Anders (Apollo 8 crewman) and Fred Haise. The trio was launched on the near-disastrous Apollo 13 mission April 11, 1970, that experienced an explosion in its service module while en route to the Moon. Fortunately, they were able to loop around the Moon and return safely to Earth, using their attached lunar module for life support and power conservation for their primary spacecraft.

Seen from the Apollo 13 command module "Odyssey" on April 17, 1970, the stricken service module it just separated from recedes into the distance towards their missed objective.  (NASA image AS13-59-8525 via Project Apollo Archive/Flickr)

Two movies recently came out about the landmark lunar-landing mission. They were First Man and Apollo 11.  I didn’t see First Man, a Hollywood docudrama that his sons said was an accurate portrayal, but I did see Apollo 11.  The latter production was a fast-paced, edited documentary of actual events, which gave me the opportunity to see a number of people I had worked with during my aerospace days.

A technician holds the plaque for Apollo 11 to be attached to the decent stage of the lunar module "Eagle."  The plaque was made of stainless steel measuring nine by seven and five-eighths inches, and one-sixteenth inch thick. (NASA image S69-39193 via Project Apollo Archive/Flickr)

Final Thoughts

Even though I was a minor player in our nation’s first manned lunar–landing mission, I’ll always remember that I was involved in it…along with a few hundred thousand other workers across the United States.  It’s something I’ll never forget!  Perhaps the Apollo 11 crew described it best when it left a plaque attached to a leg on its lunar module’s descent stage. The plaque’s wording is as follows:

HERE MEN FROM THE PLANET EARTH

FIRST SET FOOT UPON THE MOON

JULY 1969 A.D.

WE CAME IN PEACE FOR ALL MANKIND

The Apollo 11 crew names and signatures were on this plaque, along with President Nixon’s. The astronauts also left on the Moon an Apollo 1 mission patch honoring deceased astronauts Grissom, White and Chafee, and Soviet medals honoring the late cosmonauts Vladimir Komarov and Yuri Gagarin.

Apollo 11 Hasselblad image from film magazine 40/S–extra-vehicular activity (EVA) showing plaque on the landing gear strut of the lunar module “Eagle” descent stage. (NASA image SA11-40-5899 via via Project Apollo Archive/Flickr)

Editor's Note: In addition to serving as public affairs officer for 17 years at Norfolk Naval Shipyard, Steve Milner was also a public affairs contractor with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration at Cape Canaveral during the manned Gemini, Apollo and Skylab programs.
 

A Ringside View of the Moon Shots, Part 3: The Countdown Kit

A copy of the press kit issued to NASA public affairs personnel during the Apollo program. (Courtesy of Steve Milner)

By Steve Milner
Contributing Writer

For this blog post series I referred to launch countdown information from my 50-year-old Apollo 11 press kit, which I and the world’s media quoted extensively. Following a precise schedule of the planned launch events, the Apollo 11 support team ran through all major pre-launch activities, looking for unexpected anomalies. There was a built-in countdown hold about nine hours before launch that lasted nine-and-a-half hours. Then some Launch Complex 39A pad personnel cleared the area, while propellants and their oxidizers were loaded onto the three-stage rocket. 

Diagram of the Apollo Saturn 5. (NASA, courtesy of Steve Milner) 

The first stage fuel was RP-1 (kerosene) and liquid oxygen. Second and third stage propellants were liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen. Boeing built the huge first stage; North American Rockwell the second stage; and McDonnell Douglas built the third stage. IBM made the guidance or instrument unit, located between the third stage and the Apollo spacecraft’s service module.

The Apollo 11 Command/Service Module (CSM) are being mated to the Saturn V Lunar Module Adapter on April 11, 1969. (NASA Photo 69P-0247 via NASA on the Commons)

The Apollo 11 Instrument Unit is lowered into place atop the third stage of the Saturn V launch vehicle in the Vehicle Assembly Building at Kennedy. Designed at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, the Instrument Unit served as the "nerve center" for the Saturn V, providing guidance and control, command and sequence of vehicle functions, telemetry and environmental control. Marshall designed, developed and managed the production of the Saturn V rocket that took astronauts to the moon. (Marshall Space Flight Center via Flickr)

The S-IVB stage was developed under the direction of NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center and was powered by one J-2 engine capable of producing 225,000 pounds of thrust. Here, S-IVB-506, used on the Apollo 11 mission, is hoisted in the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center for mating with the S-II, or second, stage of the Saturn V rocket. (Marshall Space Flight Center via Flickr)

The Saturn V's second stage being lowered into place atop the first stage in the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA's Kennedy Space Center. (Marshall Space Flight Center via Flickr)

This view shows the Saturn V first stage thrust structure being placed for the final assembly. The Saturn IB and Saturn V first stages were manufactured at Michoud, located in New Orleans, Louisiana. The prime contractors, Chrysler and Boeing, jointly occupied Michoud. The basic manufacturing building boasted 43 acres under one roof. By 1964, NASA added a separate engineering and office building, vertical assembly building, and test stage building. By 1966, other changes to the site included enlarged barge facilities and other miscellaneous support buildings. All of this took place leading up to the Apollo 11 mission on July 16, 1969-launching astronauts to the Moon. (Marshall Space Flight Center via Flickr)

The Saturn V first stage, designed at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center and built at the Michoud Assembly Facility, was 138-feet-tall, nearly half the length of a football field.  In the photo on the left, a Saturn V's first stage (or S-IC) equipped with one dummy F-1 engine and four weights, is being lowered to the ground at Marshall after being vibrated and shaken to simulate the effects of an actual rocket launch.  On the right, a 70mm Airborne Lightweight Optical Tracking System (ALOTS) camera, mounted in a pod on a cargo door of a U.S. Air Force EC-135N aircraft, photographed the Saturn V second (S-II) and third (S-IVB) stages pull away from the expended first (S-1C) stage. Separation occurred at an altitude of about 38 miles, some 55 miles downrange from Cape Kennedy. (Marshall Space Flight Center via Flickr)

Continuing with my press kit data on launch morning, Astronauts Armstrong, Aldrin and Collins were awakened at 5:30 a.m., or four hours before their launch. They underwent a medical examination by flight surgeon, Dr. Alan Harter, and others. At that time, Dr. Harter also was the commanding officer of my U.S Air Force Reserve unit at Patrick Air Force Base. Next, the astronauts had the traditional steak-and-eggs breakfast with special visitors, who always included Donald “Deke” Slayton, the Chief of Flight Crew Operations, and Shepard, who headed the Astronaut Office. Slayton, didn’t fly during the Mercury Program due to a suspected heart murmur, but was launched into Earth orbit six years later with Tom Stafford and Vance Brand on the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project (ASTP). During the ASTP mission, their Apollo spacecraft rendezvoused, docked and provided an in-space corridor to visit the Soviet spacecraft, and vice-versa, demonstrating détente between the two nations. Slayton and Shepard were always informal, cordial guys when they visited KSC’s Headquarters Building, where my office was located. During launch preparations they worked next door, in the Manned Spacecraft Operations Building, which also housed the astronauts’ crew quarters and an Apollo spacecraft checkout area, prior to its move to the huge Vehicle Assembly Building, where it was mated to the 36-story-tall Saturn V rocket.

Three hours before their launch, Neil Armstrong waves as he leaves the crew quarters and boards the transfer van with fellow crew members Michael Collins and Buzz Aldrin for the 15-minute trip to Pad 39. (Marshall Space Flight Center via Flickr)

In preparing for their flight, the Apollo 11 crew suited up, left the Manned Space Center Operations Building and went in a transfer van to the launch site, eight miles from their crew quarters. About two-and-a-half hours before launch, they entered their Apollo spacecraft and spent their remaining time on Earth checking on-board systems with the KSC launch team, and with Mission Control in Houston.

Approximately two-and-a-half hours before launch, Neil Armstrong leads his crew across Swing Arm 9 to the "White Room" connected to the command module "Columbia," 320 feet above the ground, carrying his portable oxygen supply. (NASA Photo KSC-69PC-399via History.NASA.Gov)

The Apollo 11 space vehicle’s final checks were done at six minutes before launch, and the space vehicle’s launch automatic sequence started at nine seconds before launch. At T-minus two seconds all five of its first-stage engines were running, and at T-zero, Apollo 11 lifted off. I’ll skip the times for intervening steps, as the launch vehicle’s second and third stages ignited, sending the Apollo 11 astronauts into Earth orbit 11 minutes after their liftoff. And following maneuvers in Earth orbit, their command and service modules joined with their lunar module for the voyage to the Moon.

The general Apollo site access badge and my Apollo 11 press site access badge signed by astronaut Frank Borman.  (Courtesy of Steve Milner)

Some 3,500 news personnel, including those representing several foreign nations, were accredited for the Apollo 11 launch. And thousands of everyday persons, many of whom had camped overnight near the space center, witnessed this historic event. 

At the press site, thousands of news reporters from the world over watched, taking many pictures, as the Saturn V launch vehicle (AS-506) lifted off to start Apollo 11 on its historic mission to land on the Moon. The total number of news people officially registered to cover the launch was 3,497. The craft lifted off from launch pad 39 at Kennedy Space Flight Center (KSC) on July 16, 1969. (NASA photo courtesy of Steve Milner)

Personnel within the Launch Control Center at Kennedy Space Center watch the Apollo 11 liftoff from Launch Complex 39A today at the start of the historic lunar landing mission. The LCC is located three-and-one-half miles from the launch pad. (NASA Photo SPD-KSCMA-KSC-69PC-3 87 via NASA on the Commons)

Editor's Note: In addition to serving as public affairs officer for 17 years at Norfolk Naval Shipyard, Steve Milner was also a public affairs contractor with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration at Cape Canaveral during the manned Gemini, Apollo and Skylab programs.

A Ringside View of the Moon Shots, Part 2: JFK's Challenge Creates a Community

On February 23, 1962, President John F. Kennedy receives a briefing on the operation of Mercury Control Center at Cape Canaveral following the Mercury-Atlas 6 (MA-6) flight. This was President Kennedy's first visit to Cape Canaveral. MA-6 astronaut John H. Glenn, Jr. (partially obscured) piloted the Mercury "Friendship 7" spacecraft on the United States' first human orbital flight. In the center (on Glenn's left) is Christopher C. Kraft, Jr., MA-6 flight director and Chief of Flight Operations at the Manned Spacecraft Center (MSC). The MA-6 flight was on February 20, 1962. Astronaut Alan B. Shepard, Jr. (right), pilot of the Mercury-Redstone 3 (MR-3) mission, made the United States' first manned space flight on May 5, 1961. (NASA on the Commons Photo S74-33007)

By Steve Milner
Contributing Writer

President John F. Kennedy had issued his lunar challenge on May 25, 1961, only three weeks after our first astronaut, Alan Shepard, was launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on a 15-minute suborbital flight aboard a Redstone rocket. His flight formally began our manned space flight program. I remember this major milestone well, having skipped a college class at Penn State to watch Shepard’s launch on my black-and-white television. Little did I know that three years later I’d be a rookie freelance member of the Cape Canaveral press corps, sending news stories from this famous dateline to several radio stations across the United States. And after a year-and-a-half as a freelancer, I became a full-time NASA public affairs contractor at Kennedy Space Center and Cape Kennedy, where I proudly worked during the next eight years, supporting the manned Gemini, Apollo and Skylab space missions.

On Sept. 12, 1962, President John F. Kennedy, speaks in front of an early design for the Apollo lunar module. The large windows were later replaced with smaller, down-facing windows. Seats also were removed resulting in a design in which the astronauts stand. NASA Administrator James Webb, Vice President Lyndon Johnson, Dr. Robert Gilruth, director of NASA's Manned Spacecraft Center (now Johnson Space Center) in Houston, and others look on. (White House photo by Cecil Stoughton)

After JFK’s unprecedented challenge, a government-industry team, working at NASA field centers, universities and industry throughout the nation, dedicated itself to making his challenge a reality. In some ways, this monumental undertaking on the home front reminded me of the vast scope and complexity of America’s efforts created to fight World War II. Some 400,000 persons worked in some aspect of the Apollo Program, which (in 1960s dollars) cost $24 billion. In recognizing the contributions of a cross-section of these specialists from around the country, NASA periodically honored some of them in a social setting in Cocoa Beach with astronauts who had flown in space, or would in the future. 

Hollywood celebrities frequently attended these special events, held for workers ranging from those who made spacesuits to others who played a role in other aspect of manned space flight preparations. These honorees also toured the Kennedy Space Center and Cape Kennedy, and had VIP seating to watch Apollo launches. I was pleased to have been selected by my company as its Apollo 14 honoree, in conjunction with NASA’s Manned Flight Awareness Program. My wife and I attended the Apollo 14 reception the night before that mission’s launch on January 31, 1971, where we met actors Jimmy Stewart and spoke with Hugh O’Brian, whom I had worked with closely during his youth foundation’s visits to the Cape. There were other notables at these events, too numerous to mention here.

On November 16, 1963, Dr. Wernher von Braun, director of the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, explains the Saturn Launch System to President John F. Kennedy. NASA Deputy Administrator Robert Seamans is to the left of von Braun. Kennedy would be assassinated on a visit to Dallas less than a week later. (NASA photo 64P-0145)

Unfortunately, JFK didn’t live to see Apollo 11, a challenging mission that began from a facility named for him: the John F. Kennedy Space Center (KSC), located adjacent to the Cape.

A few weeks prior to Shepard’s historic flight, the Soviet Union had successfully launched its first cosmonaut, Yuri Gagarin, on an hour-and-a-half Earth orbital mission, greatly accelerating the space race between our two nations.

On November 20, 1969, Charles Conrad Jr., Apollo 12 Commander, examines the unmanned Surveyor III spacecraft during the second extravehicular activity (EVA-2). The Lunar Module (LM) "Intrepid" is in the right background. This picture was taken by astronaut Alan L. Bean, Lunar Module pilot. The "Intrepid" landed on the Moon's Ocean of Storms only 600 feet from Surveyor III. The television camera and several other components were taken from Surveyor III and brought back to earth for scientific analysis. Surveyor III soft-landed on the Moon on April 19, 1967. (NASA on the Commons Photo AS12-48-7136)

In selecting potential manned landing sites on the Moon, NASA referred to images and other data returned by impacting Ranger spacecraft, and Lunar Orbiter and Surveyor spacecraft. Seven Surveyor spacecraft soft landed on the lunar surface, including one that Apollo 12 astronauts Charles “Pete” Conrad and Alan Bean visited, located only about 600 feet from their landing site. They photographed Surveyor 3 and brought back some of its parts for examination on Earth. Today, their Apollo 12 command module is on display at the Virginia Air and Space Center in Hampton, Virginia.

On November 24, 1969, Astronaut Alan L. Bean, lunar module pilot, is assisted with egressing the Apollo 12 Command Module by a U.S. Navy underwater demolition team swimmer during recovery operations in the Pacific Ocean. Already in the life raft are astronauts Charles Conrad Jr., commander; and Richard F. Gordon Jr., command module pilot. The three crewmen of the second lunar landing mission were picked up by recovery helicopter and flown to the prime recovery ship, USS Hornet (CVS 12). The Apollo 12 splashdown occurred at 2:58 p.m. (CST), Nov. 24, 1969, near American Samoa. While astronauts Conrad and Bean descended in the Lunar Module (LM) "Intrepid" to explore the Ocean of Storms region of the moon, astronaut Gordon remained with the Command and Service Modules (CSM) "Yankee Clipper" in lunar orbit. (NASA Photo S69-22265 via NHHC Photo Curator/ Flickr)

NEW FRONTIER TOWN

Apollo 11 was the tip of the iceberg, because so many of America’s earlier space milestones were required to accomplish this and five subsequent manned lunar landing missions. The Apollo and earlier astronauts prepared for their flights in a community setting: Cocoa Beach and other areas located near KSC were the communities, and our space program was their principal “industry.” In some ways, Cocoa Beach in the early 1960s reminded me, as a new resident, of being a “frontier town,” where people from across the country hoped to start exciting new lives, within the backdrop of Florida’s relaxed lifestyle and our patriotic and demanding space program.

The Cocoa Beach Cape Colony Inn marquee was one of many that wished the Apollo 11 astronauts good luck on their lunar mission.  (Photo by Steve Milner)

Due to this influx, communities had to increase their services by building new schools, enlarging their law enforcement and fire departments and, possibly, cooperating regionally for the first time with other localities. Many new homes, apartments and various stores were built throughout Brevard County, where the spaceport is located. Our nation’s space program transformed a once-sleepy area into a world-famous news dateline—complete with the periodic influx of inquiring national and international media, and a continuous flow of tourists.

Interior view of Ramon's of Cocoa Beach. Color postcard, 9 x 14 cm. (State Archives of Florida, Florida Memory)

One would routinely see astronauts in local restaurants, relaxing after a tough day working in a spacecraft mission simulator or after picking up make-believe moon rocks and deploying experiments on a spaceport’s sandy field. I recall their favorite places in Cocoa Beach to unwind were–among other eateries and watering holes–Ramon’s restaurant, located atop a glass bank building, Bernard’s Surf gourmet restaurant, the oceanfront Holiday Inn lounge, and the Ramada Inn’s Wolfie’s restaurant next door; the latter being where I ate most dinners during my bachelor days. Overall, the area’s residents and aerospace workers respected the astronauts’ privacy in public places, but some tourists would approach them for autographs or conversations. In addition to those working at the Cape and KSC, there were military personnel attached to nearby Patrick Air Force Base, and the U.S. Navy’s early Polaris submarine facility at Port Canaveral that supported submerged missile test launches in the Atlantic Ocean.

On October 6, 1969, the Apollo 12 lunar Extravehicular Activity (EVA) crew members, Pete Conrad and Al Bean conduct a simulation of the lunar surface activity planned for their lunar landing mission at a training session held in the Flight Crew Training Building at the Kennedy Space Center. (NASA on the Commons Photo 69PC-0549)

The Apollo astronauts, as did Gemini and Apollo space pilots, trained in mission simulators in KSC and Houston, where they lived with their families. I always knew when mission astronauts arrived at Florida’s Patrick Air Force Base in their T-38 aircraft, because I would routinely be tasked to caption their arrival photos for news release. Unless it was a scheduled media availability, the Apollo 11 astronauts spent most of their time reviewing mission book work, and training in mission simulators. However, as their launch drew closer, they were less accessible to non-essential mission personnel. And those they interacted with as part of their “jobs,” became “primary contacts.” These included launch and support personnel, and their families, as well as the astronauts’ families. So, for example, if these key personnel or family members came in contact with someone with a cold, it had to be reported to a NASA epidemiologist for tracking practices.

Editor's Note: In addition to serving as public affairs officer for 17 years at Norfolk Naval Shipyard, Steve Milner was also a public affairs contractor with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration at Cape Canaveral during the manned Gemini, Apollo and Skylab programs.