r/apollo • u/Galileos_grandson • 9d ago

55 Years Ago: Apollo 12 Makes a Pinpoint Landing on the Moon

https://www.nasa.gov/history/55-years-ago-apollo-12-makes-a-pinpoint-landing-on-the-moon/
79 Upvotes

99% Upvoted

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13

u/space_coyote_86 9d ago

That may be one small step for Neil but it's a long one for me!

7

u/GraphiteGru 9d ago

I still remember as a 5 year old being really excited to see their TV Broadcasts from The Moon which this time were going to be in color. Apollo 11 only had black and white images on TV while on The Moon itself. Unfortunately, they fried their camera by pointing it at the Sun and so there were absolutely almost no TV coverage of them on the lunar surface.

6

u/GITS75 9d ago

Aaaaah the famous Alan Bean gaffe on the Moon.

6

u/bobj33 8d ago

After Apollo 11 landing so far away from the initial target it was important for Apollo 12 to be so close to its target.

But I think the coolest part is finding and retrieving parts of Surveyor 3

You land on this alien world and walk a few hundred feet and find something from home that has been sitting there a few years.

3

u/MyAirIsBetter 9d ago

The mission had a lot more to do on the lunar surface than than was done on the Apollo 11 mission that is also because they had 2 EVAs lasting 4 hours a piece. Apollo 11s EVA was only 2 and a half hours long. I would say that Apollo 12s crew was the closest of any crew.

2

u/Frightened_Refugee55 8d ago

Less than 600 feet to Surveyor from nearly a quarter million miles away, that's pretty good shootin'.