This is the Apollo 12 Command Module, which took astronauts to land on the moon for the second time. It was launched aboard a Saturn V rocket on November 14, 1969, carrying Commander Charles "Pete" Conrad, Command Module Pilot Richard Gordon, and Lunar Module Pilot Alan Bean. Conrad and Bean successfully landed the "Intrepid" just 600 feet from the Surveyor III spacecraft in the Ocean of Storms. During two lunar EVAs that lasted about 8 hours, Conrad and Bean deployed several scientific instruments and retrieved lunar samples and pieces of Surveyor III. Approximately 34 kg of lunar samples were returned to Earth when the "Yankee Clipper" splashed down in the Pacific Ocean of November 24, 1969.
NASA transferred the Apollo 12 capsule to the Smithsonian Institution in 1973.
This object is not on display at the National Air and Space Museum. It is either on loan or in storage.
United States of America
SPACECRAFT-Crewed
Alan L. Bean
Charles Conrad, Jr.
Richard F. Gordon
North American Rockwell
Overall: 127 in. high x 154 in. wide (base) (322.6 x 391.2cm)
Other: 127in. (322.6cm)
Support (at base): 154in. (391.2cm)
Aluminum alloy, stainless steel, and titanium structures. Outer shell - stainless steel honeycomb between stainless steel sheets. Crew compartment inner shell - aluminum honeycomb between aluminum alloy sheets.
Epoxy-resin ablative heat shield covers outside.
A19730364000
Transferred from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration
National Air and Space Museum
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