From the Earth to the Moon (1998): Season 1, Episode 7 - That's All There Is - full transcript
On the Apollo 12 mission rookie astronaut Alan Bean becomes the fourth person to walk on the moon.
[John F. Kennedy]
We choose to go to the moon.
We choose to go to the moon.
We choose to go to the moon
in this decade and do the other things,
not because they are easy,
but because they are hard.
[man over radio] Look at that.
That's beautiful.
It's got to be one of the most proud
moments of my life. I guarantee you.
[man] The great adventure
of going to the moon
may never happen again in our lifetime.
Manned space flight will continue
and there is adventure to be found
in high Earth orbit.
Robots have already gone
to other worlds,
the valleys of Mars,
the clouds and moons of Jupiter.
And there is a brand
of adventure to be had
in such a long-distance mode
of human participation.
But the satisfaction and the sudden
emptiness of an adventure completed
are intangible human concepts,
and the argument can be made
that mankind
cannot bear witness to an event
unless one of mankind
has experienced the adventure firsthand.
Not necessarily first, mind you,
just firsthand.
It is certainly not necessary
to be Neil Armstrong
to have experienced
the great adventure found
in a voyage from the Earth to the moon.
[radio static]
[Pete] Hey, Beano,
turn around and give me a big smile!
[Al narrating] My name is Al Bean.
That's me, standing in the
Ocean of Storms on November 21, 1969.
There I am again,
five very heady days later
aboard our recovery ship
where they set up a quarantine trailer
for me and my two crew mates,
Pete Conrad, my skipper,
and Dick Gordon,
our command module pilot.
They were Gemini veterans
who were about as cool as they come.
[people chattering]
Everyone knew they'd be going
to the moon, unlike me.
This was my first space flight.
Now I would be forever known
as the fourth man to set foot
on the lunar surface.
Pete and Dick wanted to be
on the first landing, but me,
well, I'd have been happy
to be on the 93rd.
Uhh!
Funny, Beano. You're a dead man!
- [Al narrating] Crying out loud.
- [phone rings]
I had the president of the United States
calling me on the phone.
Morning, Mr. President.
Me, Al Bean. Last guy
in his astronaut group to even fly.
Well, we take our jobs very seriously.
Commander-in-chief
promoted all of us to Navy captains.
Thank you, sir.
Thank you very much. Yes, sir.
Congratulations, Captain Bean.
Captain Gordon.
- Captain Conrad. Captain Bean.
- Captain Conrad, sir. Captain Gordan.
People were treating me with great care,
making sure that we hadn't come home
with any alien diseases.
Careful not to puncture his brain, Doc.
That is very funny, Dick.
You're a very funny... Ow!
We hadn't, but one of the cameras did
conk me pretty good during splashdown.
one hundred.
It was my own damn fault.
I was supposed to remove it
and put it in a bag under my seat
like it said on the checklist.
I guess I was so happy the parachutes
had worked that I said,
"Well, I'll just leave it there
on its window mount."
Now, that is stupid.
If it had hit me
in the center of the forehead,
- it would have killed me,
-Did you hit the circuit breakers?
Which would have been
a really sad situation.
- Beano, hit the breakers.
- I'm doing it.
Doing it.
Al.
- What?
- Are you okay, Al?
Yeah. Yeah, I think so. Yeah, I'm fine.
What?
Did you get knocked out or something?
What?
Actually, I had,
but I didn't realize it until later.
Hell, the whole trip, I didn't have
too much luck with cameras.
Well, I'll explain that later.
Still, bump or not,
I was alive and well.
So were my friends.
We made it and we made it well.
- Let me disinfect that for you.
- Ow!
[Dick] Oh, no!
[Al narrating] Maybe we weren't
dignified enough to be heroes.
It wouldn't matter.
'Cause we were the second mission
to land on the moon,
history's ultimate anticlimax.
Somehow, I fit right in.
In fact, flying with Pete and Dick
was the sweetest thing
about the entire mission for me.
We were a true team.
And at one point,
I even, kind of, saved the day.
[thunderclap]
[man over radio] CMP, STC.
Verify panel two DSKY program...
[Al narrating]
I didn't know what to expect.
I was a complete rookie remember.
Sure, we'd done
countless simulated launches,
so I did the same things I did
during all of those.
Roger, STC.
Main bus tie bat BC switch, on up.
I kept busy checking the console,
making sure my end of our command
module, Yankee Clipper, was ready to go.
[Pete hums]
Looks like this launch
is gonna be a wet one.
No big deal for an all-Navy crew.
We can handle it.
The rain was considered a bother,
but nothing to worry about.
[man over radio] Apollo 12,
you are go for launch. Go for launch.
Roger, STC. Go for launch.
[man over radio] Just past the 25...
[Al narrating]
Me and my best buddies were ready
for the adventure of a lifetime.
Al Bean, you are going to the moon.
- Y'all can come along if you like.
- [whoops]
[man through speaker]
Fourteen, 13, 12, 11, ten, nine.
We have ignition sequence start.
The engines are on.
Four, three, two, one, zero.
[Al narrating]
The first few moments after liftoff,
you're vibrating pretty good.
The clock is running.
Then you really start to move.
- [man over radio] Clear the tower.
- Roger. Clear the tower.
[Pete] I got a pitch-and-roll program
and this baby is really going.
Roll complete.
- Mark one bravo.
- [Pete over radio] Got you on that.
- This thing moves, doesn't it?
- [chuckles] Baby!
[Al narrating] We had just over half
a minute of trouble-free launch,
and then all hell busted loose.
[thunderclap]
- What the hell was that?
- I just lost a whole bunch of stuff.
[Pete] We just had a whole bunch
of buses drop out.
What have we got here?
A/C bus 1 light, all the fuel cells.
[Pete over radio] Okay, Houston, uh,
we just lost the platform here, gang.
I don't know what happened here.
We had everything
and the world drop out.
I got three fuel cell lights, an A/C bus
light, a fuel cell disconnect.
A/C bus overload 1 and 2,
main bus A and B out.
We had some big glitch here, gang.
- [Dick] I got A/C.
- [Pete] You got A/C?
- [Dick] Yes.
- [Pete] Then maybe it's the indicator.
- What you got on the main bus?
- Twenty-four volts. That's low.
We've got a short of some kind,
but I can't believe that's accurate.
[thunderclap]
- Flight, EECOM.
- Go, EECOM.
I think it's a fuel cell bus failure.
They've been thrown off-line somehow.
That must be why
we're getting garbage here.
Can they try SCE to aux?
[Al narrating] Gerry Griffin had
never heard that command before.
I'm pretty sure most of the people
in Mission Control hadn't.
Tell 'em.
Apollo 12, Houston.
Try SCE to auxiliary. Over.
FCE to auxiliary? What the hell is that?
SCE...
[Al narrating] I'm not sure even Pete
knew what that was but one person did.
I know what that is. Uh...
[Al] SCE to aux.
We're getting good telemetry
from you again.
Try to reset your fuel cells.
- Reset fuel cells.
- [Dick] Wait for staging.
Wait for staging, yes.
Hang on.
[thud]
[rocket engines firing]
Okay, Houston. GDC is good.
We got a good S-II, gang.
We copy that, Pete. You're looking good.
[Al narrating] Poor Gerry Griffin.
We were his first mission
as flight director,
and he had dealt with
a longer list of malfunctions
than anybody had ever seen.
[Pete over radio] Okay, now
we'll straighten out our problems here.
I don't know what happened. I'm not
sure we didn't get hit by lightning.
[Dick chuckles]
[Al narrating]
That's exactly what had happened.
Before even our first stage
had finished doing its job,
observers back on the ground
later reported that not just one,
[thunderclap]
But two bolts of lightning
rode our exhaust contrail
all the way back down to the pad
and hit the tower.
That was a hell of a simulation
you guys gave us.
I think we gotta put this through
a little more all-weather testing, guys.
[Pete laughs over radio]
Al's got all the buses back online
and we'll just square up our platform
when we get into orbit.
[Al narrating] So, I had done
my part to help out in a crisis.
Of course, that EECOM fella,
John Aaron, well, we owe a lot to him.
But to me,
the real hero was Pete Conrad.
He kept his hand on the abort handle
the entire time.
But kept his cool and he never used it.
Once I got into Earth's orbit,
I found spaceflight
was everything it was supposed to be.
[sighs]
Hey, Pete.
Take a look at this.
Oh. Those are campfires down there.
- [Pete] That's something, isn't it?
- Yes, yes.
Beautiful.
[Al narrating] Down there,
people were gathered
around man's most primitive discovery.
And here the three of us were,
riding 250,000 miles into space
on a flame.
Man, that sky is black.
Yes, it is.
How we looking, Dickie?
[Pete] You all finished
realigning the platform?
- I is finished.
- [Pete] Outstanding.
[laughs] That will give them something
to write about tonight, huh.
- I bet all our wives fainted dead away.
- [Al laughs]
I'll bet they did when
they heard you call about 18 lights.
Every time I close my eyes,
all I see are those damn lights.
And what a way to start.
Terrible way to break Al Bean
into spaceflight.
[chuckles] That's okay. I don't mind.
[Al narrating]
Not everybody was thinking
about how Al Bean
was enjoying the mission.
In Houston, unbeknownst to us,
there was serious concern
that the lightning had damaged
our pyrotechnic system
that would deploy our parachutes.
If we run the TEI checklist,
we test everything they need
to get home,
except one big item,
deployment of the chutes.
Yeah, but if the barometric switches
and timers have failed,
the crew can deploy the chutes manually.
But if the pyros had already been fired,
once they're gone,
pushing the main chute deploy button
won't do anything at all.
Is there any way to check the pyros?
[man] Only visual inspection
from the outside.
[sighs]
All right, guys. I'll let you know.
[Al narrating]
They finally decided that if it had,
we'd be just as dead splashing down now
as ten days from now,
so they might as well
send us to the moon.
["Sugar, Sugar" plays on radio]
[crew] ♪ Ah, honey honey
♪ You are my candy girl
♪ And you got me wanting you
Come on now!
♪ Honey
- Honey?
- Yeah.
♪ Ah, sugar sugar
♪ You are my candy girl
♪ And you've got me wanting you
[Pete] Dammit, I wish I could shit.
I don't have the slightest inclination,
but I know just what's gonna happen.
It's gonna be the first shit
on the lunar surface.
[Al chuckles]
- Okay, Al, your turn.
- Excuse me?
I don't wanna take any time out
on the moon that we don't have to.
I want you to go down there
and try and make a poop.
[laughs]
What the hell are you laughing at?
You're next.
I didn't know that as commander
you had that kind of authority, Pete.
Great. Now he thinks he can control
our bowel movements.
When you went on a trip
with your family,
didn't your mother make you go
before you left?
This is the longest damn vacation
you boys have ever been on.
In this vehicle I am your mother.
I want you to go down there
and work at it. I'm serious.
- [Dick laughs]
- Okay, Pete.
- [Pete] I'm serious.
- I'll see what I can do.
[Al narrating]
Fortunately, at this point,
we had time to debate such issues,
and I'm sure you're dying to know
how it all turned out.
Once again, this is Emmett Seaborn.
Those of you who have been with us
all night
are going to see quite a treat.
[Al narrating] No, they didn't broadcast
my bowel movement around the world.
In fact,
they didn't broadcast much at all.
See, now here's where my bad luck
with the TV cameras comes in.
The color camera aboard Apollo 12
is a substantial improvement
over the black-and-white unit
Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin had
at the Sea of Tranquility.
Conrad and Bean are setting up now.
[chuckles] Oh, boy. Look at that.
[Al narrating] I was in charge of
setting up the TV camera on the tripod,
so that the world,
or at least those people
that stayed up all night to see a rerun,
could watch us on the moon.
Which would have worked out great
had I not accidentally done something...
Well, something
that I wasn't supposed to do.
[chattering]
In all our months of training,
we never had the actual camera.
Actually,
all we had was a block of wood.
The following procedure
needs to be completed in four minutes.
I knew where I was supposed to put it
and I knew where the sun was gonna be
in the sky.
And someone probably told me
to keep the lens shaded or something.
Don't point it at the sun.
Set the focus at infinity.
But there are so many things to digest
in the course of training
to walk on the moon,
I guess I... I just forgot it.
We have a pretty bright image on the TV.
Can you either move it or stop it down?
[Al over radio]
Okay, I'm gonna stop it down.
[radio static]
That's as far as it goes, Houston.
How does it look to you?
No. Still looks the same, Al.
Why don't you try shifting the scene?
- [Al over radio] How's that?
-Still looks the same, Al.
We have a bright image at the top
and then blacked out about 80%
at the bottom.
There.
That's coming in better there, Al.
Uh, what change did you make?
[Al over radio]
I hit it on the top with my hammer.
I figured
we didn't have a thing to lose.
[men laughing]
[man] Uh, skillful fix, Al.
[Al over radio] Yeah.
I hit it on top with this hammer I got.
Yeah. That's skilled craftsmanship.
Let me try it again.
[metallic clangs]
Uh, Al.
We're still not getting a good picture
and you're running a tad behind.
Why don't you press on and we'll try
to get back to it later if we have time.
[Al over radio]
Well, I'll tell you what, Houston,
let me move it around here
so the back is to the sun.
Maybe that will help.
[Al narrating] When all was
said and done, nothing helped.
It's hard to get a TV repairman
to make a house call in Anytown, USA,
and impossible, of course, on the moon.
[Al narrating] The vidicon tube
was fried beyond repair,
so that was the end of color TV
from the Ocean of Storms.
They probably knew on the ground
exactly what I'd done to freak it out
but nobody wanted to say anything.
So, from Houston,
this is Emmett Seaborn.
[Al narrating]
I just hope I didn't disappoint anyone.
What the fuck happened up there?
[Pete] Hey, Al.
Come on. Forget it. Let's go.
[Al narrating]
What happened was I had screwed up.
No one would ever get to see
any more of us walking on the moon.
Not even Dick,
who was stuck up there in orbit
while we explored the surface.
I... I felt bad about that.
But flying solo in Yankee Clipper
was considered more important
than being the commander's sidekick
on the moon.
[Pete] Okay. Got it.
Lock inner mast. Lock outer mast.
Extend the locked legs. We've done that.
Align... thermal cover, okay.
[Al narrating] I clearly remember
the last few moments we spent
before we separated.
Of course,
we could've never gotten down there
or home again
if it weren't for that man.
In all the time we trained together,
Dick Gordon
never once showed any resentment
when people would introduce me as,
"The guy who was going to the moon
with Pete Conrad."
Never a trace of sarcasm.
Never an ironic remark.
He was in line for a command of his own.
He was holding out to walk on the moon
on Apollo 18.
Unfortunately,
there never was an Apollo 18.
So, this was as close as he ever got.
Well. [sighs]
I guess we gotta close her up now.
I wish this son of a bitch
fit three people. [chuckles]
[Al narrating] At that moment,
with all the challenges ahead of us,
all I could think was one thought.
Sure hope I see you again.
[Al narrating] Of course,
I never said it out loud.
[Pete] Nervous?
How did we ever get way out here anyway?
[laughs]
I just hope I can find a place to land.
And I hope I can set it down all right.
Ah, you'll do fine.
You'll do just fine.
Just don't bring her in too low,
too fast.
- Thanks, Al. Thanks a lot.
- That's all right.
- I'm just trying to help.
- No. Thanks very much.
- You know I'm here for you.
- I know you are.
Big help.
[Al narrating] Unlike Neil and Buzz,
our mission called for us not just
to land wherever the ground looked good.
You see, on 11 they were lucky
to put it down almost three miles
from where they had planned.
But we had a target
which had been waiting for us
in the Ocean of Storms for two years.
An unmanned probe named Surveyor 3.
If future missions were gonna
truly explore the moon in depth,
Apollo 12 would have to demonstrate
that a precise touchdown was possible.
Forty-two feet. Coming down at three.
Start the clock.
[engine roars]
Forty. Coming down at two. Looking good.
[Al] Thirty-two.
[Al over radio]
Thirty feet. Down at two.
Pete, you have plenty of gas.
Plenty of gas, babe.
Hang in there. Eighteen feet.
Coming down at two. He's got it made.
[Al] Come on in there. Twenty-four feet.
Contact light.
- [Pete] Shit.
- [Yankee Clipper thuds]
- [Pete whoops]
- [Al laughs]
- Pro!
- Pro. Yeah. Pro.
[Al over radio] Okay, engine arm off.
- [Pete over radio] Okay.
- [Al over radio] You got your er...
- You got your commander light off?
- Yep.
Okay. All right.
I'll cycle the main shut off valve.
- Okay.
- Good landing, Pete.
- Outstanding. That was incredible.
- Okay.
[Pete laughs] Yeah!
[Al] Outstanding!
[Pete] Uh, Houston,
we're in real good shape.
You guys did outstanding targeting.
That thing was right down the middle.
Beautiful!
I just wanna say, it was a real pleasure
riding with a number one aviator.
Way to go, Pete.
Look at it out there.
Ain't it beautiful?
That's beautiful.
That is something else. That's amazing.
- [Pete] Unbelievable.
- Oh, my God.
- Hey, you want to ask them?
- Oh, yeah. All right.
[breathes deeply]
Houston, Intrepid.
[radio static]
[man over radio] Go, Intrepid.
Where are we?
[Al narrating] By all the numbers
and delta vectors and crater sightings,
it looked like we were
right where we wanted to be.
[Al and Pete laughing]
But it wasn't until Dick
made a flyover pass
that we found out just how good a job
Pete had done bringing us down.
[Dick] Houston, I have Snowman.
And I believe I have the LEM
on the northwest corner of...
I have Intrepid.
[laughs] I have Intrepid.
I'll tell you, he's the only thing
that casts a shadow down there.
He's on the Surveyor crater,
about a third of the way
on the Surveyor crater
to the head of the Snowman.
And I have Surveyor.
[whoops] I have Surveyor.
[man over radio] Roger, Clipper.
Good eyeball. Well done.
Hey, Ed,
it's almost as good as being there.
Almost.
[Al narrating]
So, Pete had done it.
With the help
of the targeting people on the ground,
he had proven that pinpoint accuracy
was possible when landing on the moon.
He had set down our lunar module
just a stone's throw away
from our primary mission objective,
a short moon walk of about 200 yards,
just like he said he would.
Not long after that, sometime very early
in the morning back in Houston,
Pete Conrad proved something else.
He proved to me and to the world
just how eloquent a man he can be.
Charles "Pete" Conrad, Jr.
Only the third human being
to set foot on the moon.
Who can forget
Neil Armstrong's immortal words?
Let's watch and listen
to the words Conrad has chosen
to mark this moment in history.
[Pete over radio] Whoopee!
Man, that may have been a small one
for Neil, but it's a long one for me.
[Emmett chuckles]
Ah, well, uh...
There you have it, uh.
"Whoopee!" [chuckles]
[Al narrating] After training with him
for months on end,
we'd all become accustomed
to Pete's colorful use of language.
[Pete] Come on.
[Pete] You stupid son of...
You know, this thing's really
about to start pissing me off.
- [gasps]
- I finally get the cocksucker turning,
then it locks up on me again.
And I'm just spending more time
trying to turn these frigging bolts
than any goddamn else thing.
- [children giggling]
- [man] Let's go see the command module.
Goddamn. Son of a... Cocksucker.
Goddamn it.
[Pete] Hey, Beano.
Turn around and give me a big smile.
[shutter clicks]
[Al narrating]
I had a special moment for myself
to mark my getting to the moon.
When you are selected to become a member
of the astronaut corps,
you wear a special silver pin.
It gets replaced by a gold pin
when you actually fly a mission.
I had worn my silver pin for six years.
And being selected for Apollo 12,
I wasn't going to be needing it anymore.
And I wanted to put it
in a special place
where it would rest forever.
What better place
than in the Ocean of Storms?
I joined NASA in the third group
of 14 astronauts in 1963.
So did Dick Gordon,
who flew with Pete in Gemini 11.
While he and the rest of the group
were jockeying for seats
on lunar landing flights,
I was assigned
to the Apollo Applications Program,
the space station which came to be known
as Skylab.
Pete called it, "Tomorrowland".
Planning things so far in the future,
who knew if they'd ever become a reality
or not?
So, while I was tucked away
in some far-off corner,
it seemed everyone else was
getting assigned mission after mission.
I guess I, sort of, felt like
the forgotten man.
But I kept an eye on
what my peers were doing,
all the guys I used to commiserate with
about not getting to fly.
Walt Cunningham
made the crew of Apollo 7.
Bill Anders, Apollo 8.
Rusty Schweickart, Apollo 9.
That left just me.
But there were others from our group
that were not so fortunate.
Ted Freeman was flying his T-38
at a couple hundred miles per hour
when a goose smashed in the plexiglass
of his cockpit.
He was killed.
Charlie Bassett died
along with Elliot See
when Elliot crashed into a building
at the McDonnell plant in St. Louis.
Roger Chaffee
was on the crew of Apollo 1,
killed in the fire
with Gus Grissom and Ed White.
And then there was CC Williams.
He was supposed to be
the original lunar module pilot
on Apollo 12, along with Pete and Dick.
He had spent the night before
our astronaut physicals
jumping up and down
to compress his spine.
There was a six-foot height limit,
and CC
was just a shade over six feet even.
He was a superb astronaut who impressed
everyone he came into contact with,
but CC was killed
when his T-38 went into a spin
over the swamps of Tallahassee.
He had been cruising at 24, 000 feet
when his controls locked
and the plane went into a steep dive.
He didn't have time to bail out.
To be honest, at that point,
I wasn't even hoping
to fly Apollo anymore.
It just...
it just hurt too much to think about it.
But I guess somebody
was looking out for me.
Somebody named Pete Conrad.
[Pete] Al, you got a minute?
Hey there, Pete. Sure.
What can I do for you?
Well, I just talked to Deke.
How'd you like to go to the moon
with Dick and me?
Do you think you can give up
all this excitement?
[Pete chews]
Al?
You okay, Al?
Okay. You're on board.
Mm-hmm.
Okay.
[Al narrating] it was such a shock.
It took some time to really sink in.
[door closes]
Of course, once on the moon,
I had little time
to think about such things.
I heard once
the real cost of us being there was
about a million dollars for each minute.
Pete and I did our best to stretch
every penny of America's money.
We're not just astronauts.
Suddenly, we're meteorologists,
seismologists,
geologists, geochemists, you name it.
[man over radio] Pete and Al, Houston.
Looks like you did your job,
we're getting data back.
[Pete over radio] Hey, Houston,
you just don't know how happy I am.
Actually, we're picking up your heavy
footsteps going by the seismometer.
[Pete over radio] It's great.
[Al narrating]
Our bosses couldn't see us
but now they knew
how fast we were working.
[Pete] Man, are you dirty.
This is dirt dirt.
[Al] Remember how
they took care of these experiments?
You had to have gloves
to touch them.
Tell them it's important
to keep the connectors and experiments
free of dust.
Uh, Dr. Wilson
asks you guys not to forget
[over radio] to try and keep the
connectors and experiments free of dust.
[both laugh]
- [Al over radio] Roger.
- [Pete laughs over radio]
[Al narrating] Dirt or no dirt,
everything worked fine.
And while we were laughing
and chatting away,
poor Dick was trying to get work done.
[Houston over radio]
Okay, Clipper, understand.
You did not copy all of that PAD.
Is that affirm?
Hey, Ed, if you want to talk to me,
you'll have to take it off relay
so Pete and Al won't cut you out.
[chuckles]
It's impossible to hear anything
with those guys yakking.
[Pete] Let's get some rocks right here.
Here's some.
[Al narrating] There were so many things
for us to remember to do
during our EVAs on the moon,
that we needed some kind of cheat sheet
that would always be within reach.
So, both of us had drafted
a cuff checklist to wear on our sleeves.
But the actual flight item was made up
by the ground crew just before launch
and put in our suits
without our even seeing them
until we were on the moon.
Thanks to Dave Scott
and the rest of our backup crew,
we had a little extra reading to do.
[laughs]
Hey, Beano! Beano!
Look at your checklist.
Beano! [laughs]
[Pete] That's the terrain for me!
[laughs]
[Al narrating]
With a 30-minute extension to our EVA,
I was able to get the core sample tube
in and out of the ground.
Pete and I got up our first load
of moon rocks.
And we dusted each other off
as much as possible,
then I started back up the ladder.
And just like that,
the first of my two four-hour moon walks
was over.
It's impossible to truly appreciate
something at the moment it's happening.
I suppose I had flashes of thought like,
"How did I get to the moon?"
But if you put yourself in my place,
your head would be filled with
so many checklists and procedures
that all you could do, really,
is lay there looking
at the panel readouts
upon which your life depends,
feeling bad about that lost TV camera.
It wasn't the reason we came
to the moon,
and I know we're all human
and we mess up,
but I sure felt bad about it.
As usual, I seem to be
a bit more sensitive about such things
than my colleagues.
I guess Pete and Dick are more typical
of the astronaut personality.
Unflappable, confident, fun-loving.
As for me, well,
one out of three ain't bad.
I mean, we did have fun together.
We were the most close-knit
of any crew that ever flew.
Pete even got us
matching gold Corvettes,
customized for our positions
on the crew.
CDR for commander,
CMP for command module pilot,
and LMP for me, the lunar module pilot.
Those men were then
and still are my best friends.
We had the attitude that if you're gonna
do all this work to get to the moon,
it might as well be fun.
No!
[engine revs]
[Al narrating] I probably
should have taken a sleeping pill,
but it wasn't the manly thing to do.
Finally, I was able to put work aside,
allow myself a moment of peace,
a moment of calm.
Finally, I got to sleep.
[electronic humming]
That doesn't sound right.
[Pete] No, it's okay.
No caution or warning lights.
- [Al] Cabin pressure's okay.
- It's the cooling pump.
Helium regulator's nominal.
It's not the burst disk.
- Al, it's the cooling pump. It's okay.
- Yeah?
Yeah.
- Cooling pump?
- [Pete] Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah, I guess you're right.
[chuckles] I am.
Okay.
Back to sleep.
- But, Al, since you're up...
- Hmm? Yeah? What?
Um...
- I've been awake for a while.
- You have? Well, so have I.
Why didn't you say anything?
This damn neck ring
is cutting into my neck.
And the cocksucker is killing me.
They snugged up my boot too tight
and it's pulling on the whole one side.
I... [sighs]
I think we're gonna have to re-lace it.
Okay.
[Al narrating]
Now that we were up,
I started thinking
about the EVA to come.
Our second and last.
We were planning
to take a very historic photo
using a special timer
we had snuck on board.
- [Dick] Come on, Beano.
- [Pete] Hurry up, Beano.
[Dick] Let's go.
- [timer buzzes]
- [Pete] Come on. Sit down.
[Dick] You got it set up?
[shutter clicks]
[Al narrating] All the photographs from
Apollo 11 were of Buzz taken by Neil.
One astronaut with maybe the other guy
reflected in his visor.
We had the idea to set up the camera
with this timer
and get both me and Pete in the picture,
and not tell anyone about it
until the film was developed.
- It was a great idea.
- Electric man.
And the only trick was
finding the right moment to do it
so Houston wouldn't catch on
to what we were up to.
By the time we made it to the Surveyor,
Pete and I had less than an hour left
outside in the Ocean of Storms.
Our first order of business
was that secret photo.
I had practiced finding the timer
plenty of times
and I never had any real trouble
getting it.
I had the whole procedure down
to just a few seconds.
And the result
would have been magnificent...
[timer buzzes]
[shutter clicks]
[shutter clicks]
[shutter clicks]
had I been able
to find the damn thing.
I'll be darned.
- [Pete] It is in there, isn't it?
- Let me look down there one more time.
[Pete] Wait a minute.
What's in your bag here?
- [Pete] It's just a film magazine.
- I'll try at this end.
[Al narrating]
I knew that I was wasting precious time.
And if it didn't turn up quick,
it would've been criminal
to continue a search in vain.
So...
- [Al] I've had it.
- Huh?
- [Al] Forget it.
- All right, I'll tell you what...
Why don't we mosey down there
and grab us what we came here for?
[Al narrating] In 1967,
Surveyor's TV camera had broadcast
the first ever television pictures
from the surface of the moon.
Now, we aimed
to take that camera home with us
so they could study
the long-term effects of the moon
on man-made machines.
Getting it would mean we had completed
each and every one
of our mission objectives.
[Pete] We got her.
[Pete] I got it. Hey, Al.
Got something for you.
[Al narrating] After more than
three hours of hard work on the moon,
I probably wasn't
the most imaginative person.
Had I been thinking fully,
that's when we would've
taken the picture with that timer.
We could have shook hands there
at the end of our EVA,
standing in front of Intrepid.
It would have been a great picture
but I didn't think of it.
There was just one last thing to do.
None of us had forgotten the reason
I was privileged enough to be there.
[Pete] We made it, CC.
[Al narrating]
We left CC's wings on the lunar surface.
He's the reason there's four stars
on our mission patch, not just three.
And then that was it.
Our walk on the moon
was officially over.
I had spent a total of seven hours
and 45 minutes walking on the moon.
In a person's lifetime,
that's nothing but a blink.
But what my eyes witnessed there
in the day I spent
at the Ocean of Storms still fuels me.
Still fills me with a sense of wonder
that is hard to put into words.
[rocket thrusts]
[Pete] What a neat ride!
[Al] Ascent's okay. So is the flag.
[Al narrating] Neil and Buzz's ascent
had knocked the crap out of their flag.
They could send a man to the moon
but they couldn't think to place the
flag 50 feet away from a rocket engine
so it wouldn't get blown over.
- Check our range and range rate.
- Okay.
Intrepid, Houston.
You are ten seconds to LOS.
We'll pick you up again
at 142:21:31 through honeysuckle.
[Pete over radio] Roger, roger, Houston.
We'll see you on the other side.
[Pete] What do you say, Al?
Want to take a minute
and fly this vehicle?
[Al narrating] Even though I was
called the lunar module pilot,
the only way I'm supposed to get to fly
the LEM is in the case of an emergency.
- You got it.
- I got it.
Some people might want the commander
to fly all the time.
And some commanders might do just that.
- How's it feel?
- It feels real good.
- Man. It's better than the sim.
- A lot better than the sim.
Yeah. Man, it really feels great.
It's unbelievable. Man.
[Al narrating] I don't know if anyone
in Houston would have criticized Pete...
but we were on
the far side of the moon...
and they had no way of knowing.
So, for a few moments on Apollo 12,
the lunar module pilot
actually piloted the lunar module...
thanks to my good friend, Pete Conrad.
- Howdy, fellas!
- [Al] Hey, Dick.
Jesus! Did you have to bring back
half the moon with you?
Uh-uh. You ain't gonna mess up
my nice clean spacecraft.
You strip down and wipe yourselves off
before you come in here.
I mean it. Go.
He's right. You're filthy.
[laughs] Welcome home, fellas.
Can I get you anything to drink?
Water? Any beverage at all?
- Ah, Beano.
- Hey there, Dick.
[laughs] Careful not to flip
any breakers with anything hanging out.
Attitude: dead man minimum.
[Al narrating]
By the time we were out of our suits,
we had to strap in and jettison
the lunar module.
- Spacecraft control, SCS.
- All right.
We're all set to jettison the LEM
in about a minute.
You know, if, uh... [chuckles]
If we were to lose the hatch
when we blow the LEM,
and one day someone was to find us
floating around up here like this...
they might be pretty confused.
[all laughing]
At least we'll go out of this world
the same way we came in, huh?
Well, you two.
You didn't come into the world
in that suit?
- No. Man, I hope not.
- [Al] At least for your mother.
[Al narrating] After a day
of lunar orbit photography
getting stereo photos of possible
landing sites for Apollo 13 and 14,
and when every piece of equipment
was stowed and every item
checked off the flight plan,
we prepared for the big burn
that would take us home.
HRB forward, check.
All right.
We're just waiting for the DSKY.
You know, I feel sort of like that song,
"Is That All There ls"?
Al Bean...
I was just thinking
the exact same thing.
[Al narrating]
Not that it wasn't amazing.
Just that the whole experience
didn't feel like a headline.
It was real, and I had lived it.
Falling through the sky
after a trip to the moon
is no more surreal an experience
than getting there in the first place,
or walking on its surface.
It's just one more step,
one more planned event
that comes about because of science
and imagination and effort.
You can go through all the manuals,
all the procedures and checklists,
all the graphs and blueprints
that show you how it is possible
to do what we did,
to go where we had gone.
And you might be impressed that such
a complicated thing was even attempted.
So impressed even
that you wouldn't realize
that the three people
who made the journey
and undertook all the challenges
contained within it were, in essence,
not that much different from yourself.
- [door bangs]
- Damn, that shower feels good.
The first time you take a shower
and it doesn't feel good
that's when you'll know
you're officially home from the moon.
[Dick chuckles]
They should let us outta here.
I don't have any diseases.
Me neither.
I just want to go to Pee Tee's
and grab me some Cajun food
and a couple of beers.
How about you, Al?
You back from the moon yet?
Yeah, I'm back.
Back from the moon.
[Pete laughs]
- What are you laughing at?
- Yeah. What's so funny?
I just... I don't think I'll ever forget
when all that good stuff
was lighting up... [laughs]
And then CAPCOM
called up SCE to auxiliary.
I know I didn't know what that meant,
and you were awfully quiet, I might add.
All I hear is Al Bean's voice,
two octaves higher than it ought to be
saying, "I know what it is."
[Al narrating]
The best record of what it was like
to have gone to the moon and return
is not in the tangible evidence
of the endeavor.
It's not in the things we took with us
or brought back.
And it wouldn't have been
in the TV footage we never got,
which I beat myself up over
for half the mission.
It's in the individual consciousness
and vision
of the human beings who made the trip.
People like Dick Gordon,
Pete Conrad, and even me.
My, that sun is bright.
It feels good.
[crowd chattering]
- Let's go.
- Yeah.
[Al narrating] In the end,
what I have left from my walk
in the Ocean of Storms are memories.
Almost like it was a trip to
the seashore or a drive in the country.
They mix together in a constant stream
of thoughts and images that come and go,
like all memories do.
The most precious things
I brought back with me
were the same things I left with,
my two best friends.
And I realize when you go through
any endeavor, any journey,
whether across town
or to the moon and back,
all that matters
is that you share the experience
with people that you love.
That's what makes life special.
Because, ultimately,
that's all there is.
That's really all there is.
We choose to go to the moon.
We choose to go to the moon.
We choose to go to the moon
in this decade and do the other things,
not because they are easy,
but because they are hard.
[man over radio] Look at that.
That's beautiful.
It's got to be one of the most proud
moments of my life. I guarantee you.
[man] The great adventure
of going to the moon
may never happen again in our lifetime.
Manned space flight will continue
and there is adventure to be found
in high Earth orbit.
Robots have already gone
to other worlds,
the valleys of Mars,
the clouds and moons of Jupiter.
And there is a brand
of adventure to be had
in such a long-distance mode
of human participation.
But the satisfaction and the sudden
emptiness of an adventure completed
are intangible human concepts,
and the argument can be made
that mankind
cannot bear witness to an event
unless one of mankind
has experienced the adventure firsthand.
Not necessarily first, mind you,
just firsthand.
It is certainly not necessary
to be Neil Armstrong
to have experienced
the great adventure found
in a voyage from the Earth to the moon.
[radio static]
[Pete] Hey, Beano,
turn around and give me a big smile!
[Al narrating] My name is Al Bean.
That's me, standing in the
Ocean of Storms on November 21, 1969.
There I am again,
five very heady days later
aboard our recovery ship
where they set up a quarantine trailer
for me and my two crew mates,
Pete Conrad, my skipper,
and Dick Gordon,
our command module pilot.
They were Gemini veterans
who were about as cool as they come.
[people chattering]
Everyone knew they'd be going
to the moon, unlike me.
This was my first space flight.
Now I would be forever known
as the fourth man to set foot
on the lunar surface.
Pete and Dick wanted to be
on the first landing, but me,
well, I'd have been happy
to be on the 93rd.
Uhh!
Funny, Beano. You're a dead man!
- [Al narrating] Crying out loud.
- [phone rings]
I had the president of the United States
calling me on the phone.
Morning, Mr. President.
Me, Al Bean. Last guy
in his astronaut group to even fly.
Well, we take our jobs very seriously.
Commander-in-chief
promoted all of us to Navy captains.
Thank you, sir.
Thank you very much. Yes, sir.
Congratulations, Captain Bean.
Captain Gordon.
- Captain Conrad. Captain Bean.
- Captain Conrad, sir. Captain Gordan.
People were treating me with great care,
making sure that we hadn't come home
with any alien diseases.
Careful not to puncture his brain, Doc.
That is very funny, Dick.
You're a very funny... Ow!
We hadn't, but one of the cameras did
conk me pretty good during splashdown.
one hundred.
It was my own damn fault.
I was supposed to remove it
and put it in a bag under my seat
like it said on the checklist.
I guess I was so happy the parachutes
had worked that I said,
"Well, I'll just leave it there
on its window mount."
Now, that is stupid.
If it had hit me
in the center of the forehead,
- it would have killed me,
-Did you hit the circuit breakers?
Which would have been
a really sad situation.
- Beano, hit the breakers.
- I'm doing it.
Doing it.
Al.
- What?
- Are you okay, Al?
Yeah. Yeah, I think so. Yeah, I'm fine.
What?
Did you get knocked out or something?
What?
Actually, I had,
but I didn't realize it until later.
Hell, the whole trip, I didn't have
too much luck with cameras.
Well, I'll explain that later.
Still, bump or not,
I was alive and well.
So were my friends.
We made it and we made it well.
- Let me disinfect that for you.
- Ow!
[Dick] Oh, no!
[Al narrating] Maybe we weren't
dignified enough to be heroes.
It wouldn't matter.
'Cause we were the second mission
to land on the moon,
history's ultimate anticlimax.
Somehow, I fit right in.
In fact, flying with Pete and Dick
was the sweetest thing
about the entire mission for me.
We were a true team.
And at one point,
I even, kind of, saved the day.
[thunderclap]
[man over radio] CMP, STC.
Verify panel two DSKY program...
[Al narrating]
I didn't know what to expect.
I was a complete rookie remember.
Sure, we'd done
countless simulated launches,
so I did the same things I did
during all of those.
Roger, STC.
Main bus tie bat BC switch, on up.
I kept busy checking the console,
making sure my end of our command
module, Yankee Clipper, was ready to go.
[Pete hums]
Looks like this launch
is gonna be a wet one.
No big deal for an all-Navy crew.
We can handle it.
The rain was considered a bother,
but nothing to worry about.
[man over radio] Apollo 12,
you are go for launch. Go for launch.
Roger, STC. Go for launch.
[man over radio] Just past the 25...
[Al narrating]
Me and my best buddies were ready
for the adventure of a lifetime.
Al Bean, you are going to the moon.
- Y'all can come along if you like.
- [whoops]
[man through speaker]
Fourteen, 13, 12, 11, ten, nine.
We have ignition sequence start.
The engines are on.
Four, three, two, one, zero.
[Al narrating]
The first few moments after liftoff,
you're vibrating pretty good.
The clock is running.
Then you really start to move.
- [man over radio] Clear the tower.
- Roger. Clear the tower.
[Pete] I got a pitch-and-roll program
and this baby is really going.
Roll complete.
- Mark one bravo.
- [Pete over radio] Got you on that.
- This thing moves, doesn't it?
- [chuckles] Baby!
[Al narrating] We had just over half
a minute of trouble-free launch,
and then all hell busted loose.
[thunderclap]
- What the hell was that?
- I just lost a whole bunch of stuff.
[Pete] We just had a whole bunch
of buses drop out.
What have we got here?
A/C bus 1 light, all the fuel cells.
[Pete over radio] Okay, Houston, uh,
we just lost the platform here, gang.
I don't know what happened here.
We had everything
and the world drop out.
I got three fuel cell lights, an A/C bus
light, a fuel cell disconnect.
A/C bus overload 1 and 2,
main bus A and B out.
We had some big glitch here, gang.
- [Dick] I got A/C.
- [Pete] You got A/C?
- [Dick] Yes.
- [Pete] Then maybe it's the indicator.
- What you got on the main bus?
- Twenty-four volts. That's low.
We've got a short of some kind,
but I can't believe that's accurate.
[thunderclap]
- Flight, EECOM.
- Go, EECOM.
I think it's a fuel cell bus failure.
They've been thrown off-line somehow.
That must be why
we're getting garbage here.
Can they try SCE to aux?
[Al narrating] Gerry Griffin had
never heard that command before.
I'm pretty sure most of the people
in Mission Control hadn't.
Tell 'em.
Apollo 12, Houston.
Try SCE to auxiliary. Over.
FCE to auxiliary? What the hell is that?
SCE...
[Al narrating] I'm not sure even Pete
knew what that was but one person did.
I know what that is. Uh...
[Al] SCE to aux.
We're getting good telemetry
from you again.
Try to reset your fuel cells.
- Reset fuel cells.
- [Dick] Wait for staging.
Wait for staging, yes.
Hang on.
[thud]
[rocket engines firing]
Okay, Houston. GDC is good.
We got a good S-II, gang.
We copy that, Pete. You're looking good.
[Al narrating] Poor Gerry Griffin.
We were his first mission
as flight director,
and he had dealt with
a longer list of malfunctions
than anybody had ever seen.
[Pete over radio] Okay, now
we'll straighten out our problems here.
I don't know what happened. I'm not
sure we didn't get hit by lightning.
[Dick chuckles]
[Al narrating]
That's exactly what had happened.
Before even our first stage
had finished doing its job,
observers back on the ground
later reported that not just one,
[thunderclap]
But two bolts of lightning
rode our exhaust contrail
all the way back down to the pad
and hit the tower.
That was a hell of a simulation
you guys gave us.
I think we gotta put this through
a little more all-weather testing, guys.
[Pete laughs over radio]
Al's got all the buses back online
and we'll just square up our platform
when we get into orbit.
[Al narrating] So, I had done
my part to help out in a crisis.
Of course, that EECOM fella,
John Aaron, well, we owe a lot to him.
But to me,
the real hero was Pete Conrad.
He kept his hand on the abort handle
the entire time.
But kept his cool and he never used it.
Once I got into Earth's orbit,
I found spaceflight
was everything it was supposed to be.
[sighs]
Hey, Pete.
Take a look at this.
Oh. Those are campfires down there.
- [Pete] That's something, isn't it?
- Yes, yes.
Beautiful.
[Al narrating] Down there,
people were gathered
around man's most primitive discovery.
And here the three of us were,
riding 250,000 miles into space
on a flame.
Man, that sky is black.
Yes, it is.
How we looking, Dickie?
[Pete] You all finished
realigning the platform?
- I is finished.
- [Pete] Outstanding.
[laughs] That will give them something
to write about tonight, huh.
- I bet all our wives fainted dead away.
- [Al laughs]
I'll bet they did when
they heard you call about 18 lights.
Every time I close my eyes,
all I see are those damn lights.
And what a way to start.
Terrible way to break Al Bean
into spaceflight.
[chuckles] That's okay. I don't mind.
[Al narrating]
Not everybody was thinking
about how Al Bean
was enjoying the mission.
In Houston, unbeknownst to us,
there was serious concern
that the lightning had damaged
our pyrotechnic system
that would deploy our parachutes.
If we run the TEI checklist,
we test everything they need
to get home,
except one big item,
deployment of the chutes.
Yeah, but if the barometric switches
and timers have failed,
the crew can deploy the chutes manually.
But if the pyros had already been fired,
once they're gone,
pushing the main chute deploy button
won't do anything at all.
Is there any way to check the pyros?
[man] Only visual inspection
from the outside.
[sighs]
All right, guys. I'll let you know.
[Al narrating]
They finally decided that if it had,
we'd be just as dead splashing down now
as ten days from now,
so they might as well
send us to the moon.
["Sugar, Sugar" plays on radio]
[crew] ♪ Ah, honey honey
♪ You are my candy girl
♪ And you got me wanting you
Come on now!
♪ Honey
- Honey?
- Yeah.
♪ Ah, sugar sugar
♪ You are my candy girl
♪ And you've got me wanting you
[Pete] Dammit, I wish I could shit.
I don't have the slightest inclination,
but I know just what's gonna happen.
It's gonna be the first shit
on the lunar surface.
[Al chuckles]
- Okay, Al, your turn.
- Excuse me?
I don't wanna take any time out
on the moon that we don't have to.
I want you to go down there
and try and make a poop.
[laughs]
What the hell are you laughing at?
You're next.
I didn't know that as commander
you had that kind of authority, Pete.
Great. Now he thinks he can control
our bowel movements.
When you went on a trip
with your family,
didn't your mother make you go
before you left?
This is the longest damn vacation
you boys have ever been on.
In this vehicle I am your mother.
I want you to go down there
and work at it. I'm serious.
- [Dick laughs]
- Okay, Pete.
- [Pete] I'm serious.
- I'll see what I can do.
[Al narrating]
Fortunately, at this point,
we had time to debate such issues,
and I'm sure you're dying to know
how it all turned out.
Once again, this is Emmett Seaborn.
Those of you who have been with us
all night
are going to see quite a treat.
[Al narrating] No, they didn't broadcast
my bowel movement around the world.
In fact,
they didn't broadcast much at all.
See, now here's where my bad luck
with the TV cameras comes in.
The color camera aboard Apollo 12
is a substantial improvement
over the black-and-white unit
Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin had
at the Sea of Tranquility.
Conrad and Bean are setting up now.
[chuckles] Oh, boy. Look at that.
[Al narrating] I was in charge of
setting up the TV camera on the tripod,
so that the world,
or at least those people
that stayed up all night to see a rerun,
could watch us on the moon.
Which would have worked out great
had I not accidentally done something...
Well, something
that I wasn't supposed to do.
[chattering]
In all our months of training,
we never had the actual camera.
Actually,
all we had was a block of wood.
The following procedure
needs to be completed in four minutes.
I knew where I was supposed to put it
and I knew where the sun was gonna be
in the sky.
And someone probably told me
to keep the lens shaded or something.
Don't point it at the sun.
Set the focus at infinity.
But there are so many things to digest
in the course of training
to walk on the moon,
I guess I... I just forgot it.
We have a pretty bright image on the TV.
Can you either move it or stop it down?
[Al over radio]
Okay, I'm gonna stop it down.
[radio static]
That's as far as it goes, Houston.
How does it look to you?
No. Still looks the same, Al.
Why don't you try shifting the scene?
- [Al over radio] How's that?
-Still looks the same, Al.
We have a bright image at the top
and then blacked out about 80%
at the bottom.
There.
That's coming in better there, Al.
Uh, what change did you make?
[Al over radio]
I hit it on the top with my hammer.
I figured
we didn't have a thing to lose.
[men laughing]
[man] Uh, skillful fix, Al.
[Al over radio] Yeah.
I hit it on top with this hammer I got.
Yeah. That's skilled craftsmanship.
Let me try it again.
[metallic clangs]
Uh, Al.
We're still not getting a good picture
and you're running a tad behind.
Why don't you press on and we'll try
to get back to it later if we have time.
[Al over radio]
Well, I'll tell you what, Houston,
let me move it around here
so the back is to the sun.
Maybe that will help.
[Al narrating] When all was
said and done, nothing helped.
It's hard to get a TV repairman
to make a house call in Anytown, USA,
and impossible, of course, on the moon.
[Al narrating] The vidicon tube
was fried beyond repair,
so that was the end of color TV
from the Ocean of Storms.
They probably knew on the ground
exactly what I'd done to freak it out
but nobody wanted to say anything.
So, from Houston,
this is Emmett Seaborn.
[Al narrating]
I just hope I didn't disappoint anyone.
What the fuck happened up there?
[Pete] Hey, Al.
Come on. Forget it. Let's go.
[Al narrating]
What happened was I had screwed up.
No one would ever get to see
any more of us walking on the moon.
Not even Dick,
who was stuck up there in orbit
while we explored the surface.
I... I felt bad about that.
But flying solo in Yankee Clipper
was considered more important
than being the commander's sidekick
on the moon.
[Pete] Okay. Got it.
Lock inner mast. Lock outer mast.
Extend the locked legs. We've done that.
Align... thermal cover, okay.
[Al narrating] I clearly remember
the last few moments we spent
before we separated.
Of course,
we could've never gotten down there
or home again
if it weren't for that man.
In all the time we trained together,
Dick Gordon
never once showed any resentment
when people would introduce me as,
"The guy who was going to the moon
with Pete Conrad."
Never a trace of sarcasm.
Never an ironic remark.
He was in line for a command of his own.
He was holding out to walk on the moon
on Apollo 18.
Unfortunately,
there never was an Apollo 18.
So, this was as close as he ever got.
Well. [sighs]
I guess we gotta close her up now.
I wish this son of a bitch
fit three people. [chuckles]
[Al narrating] At that moment,
with all the challenges ahead of us,
all I could think was one thought.
Sure hope I see you again.
[Al narrating] Of course,
I never said it out loud.
[Pete] Nervous?
How did we ever get way out here anyway?
[laughs]
I just hope I can find a place to land.
And I hope I can set it down all right.
Ah, you'll do fine.
You'll do just fine.
Just don't bring her in too low,
too fast.
- Thanks, Al. Thanks a lot.
- That's all right.
- I'm just trying to help.
- No. Thanks very much.
- You know I'm here for you.
- I know you are.
Big help.
[Al narrating] Unlike Neil and Buzz,
our mission called for us not just
to land wherever the ground looked good.
You see, on 11 they were lucky
to put it down almost three miles
from where they had planned.
But we had a target
which had been waiting for us
in the Ocean of Storms for two years.
An unmanned probe named Surveyor 3.
If future missions were gonna
truly explore the moon in depth,
Apollo 12 would have to demonstrate
that a precise touchdown was possible.
Forty-two feet. Coming down at three.
Start the clock.
[engine roars]
Forty. Coming down at two. Looking good.
[Al] Thirty-two.
[Al over radio]
Thirty feet. Down at two.
Pete, you have plenty of gas.
Plenty of gas, babe.
Hang in there. Eighteen feet.
Coming down at two. He's got it made.
[Al] Come on in there. Twenty-four feet.
Contact light.
- [Pete] Shit.
- [Yankee Clipper thuds]
- [Pete whoops]
- [Al laughs]
- Pro!
- Pro. Yeah. Pro.
[Al over radio] Okay, engine arm off.
- [Pete over radio] Okay.
- [Al over radio] You got your er...
- You got your commander light off?
- Yep.
Okay. All right.
I'll cycle the main shut off valve.
- Okay.
- Good landing, Pete.
- Outstanding. That was incredible.
- Okay.
[Pete laughs] Yeah!
[Al] Outstanding!
[Pete] Uh, Houston,
we're in real good shape.
You guys did outstanding targeting.
That thing was right down the middle.
Beautiful!
I just wanna say, it was a real pleasure
riding with a number one aviator.
Way to go, Pete.
Look at it out there.
Ain't it beautiful?
That's beautiful.
That is something else. That's amazing.
- [Pete] Unbelievable.
- Oh, my God.
- Hey, you want to ask them?
- Oh, yeah. All right.
[breathes deeply]
Houston, Intrepid.
[radio static]
[man over radio] Go, Intrepid.
Where are we?
[Al narrating] By all the numbers
and delta vectors and crater sightings,
it looked like we were
right where we wanted to be.
[Al and Pete laughing]
But it wasn't until Dick
made a flyover pass
that we found out just how good a job
Pete had done bringing us down.
[Dick] Houston, I have Snowman.
And I believe I have the LEM
on the northwest corner of...
I have Intrepid.
[laughs] I have Intrepid.
I'll tell you, he's the only thing
that casts a shadow down there.
He's on the Surveyor crater,
about a third of the way
on the Surveyor crater
to the head of the Snowman.
And I have Surveyor.
[whoops] I have Surveyor.
[man over radio] Roger, Clipper.
Good eyeball. Well done.
Hey, Ed,
it's almost as good as being there.
Almost.
[Al narrating]
So, Pete had done it.
With the help
of the targeting people on the ground,
he had proven that pinpoint accuracy
was possible when landing on the moon.
He had set down our lunar module
just a stone's throw away
from our primary mission objective,
a short moon walk of about 200 yards,
just like he said he would.
Not long after that, sometime very early
in the morning back in Houston,
Pete Conrad proved something else.
He proved to me and to the world
just how eloquent a man he can be.
Charles "Pete" Conrad, Jr.
Only the third human being
to set foot on the moon.
Who can forget
Neil Armstrong's immortal words?
Let's watch and listen
to the words Conrad has chosen
to mark this moment in history.
[Pete over radio] Whoopee!
Man, that may have been a small one
for Neil, but it's a long one for me.
[Emmett chuckles]
Ah, well, uh...
There you have it, uh.
"Whoopee!" [chuckles]
[Al narrating] After training with him
for months on end,
we'd all become accustomed
to Pete's colorful use of language.
[Pete] Come on.
[Pete] You stupid son of...
You know, this thing's really
about to start pissing me off.
- [gasps]
- I finally get the cocksucker turning,
then it locks up on me again.
And I'm just spending more time
trying to turn these frigging bolts
than any goddamn else thing.
- [children giggling]
- [man] Let's go see the command module.
Goddamn. Son of a... Cocksucker.
Goddamn it.
[Pete] Hey, Beano.
Turn around and give me a big smile.
[shutter clicks]
[Al narrating]
I had a special moment for myself
to mark my getting to the moon.
When you are selected to become a member
of the astronaut corps,
you wear a special silver pin.
It gets replaced by a gold pin
when you actually fly a mission.
I had worn my silver pin for six years.
And being selected for Apollo 12,
I wasn't going to be needing it anymore.
And I wanted to put it
in a special place
where it would rest forever.
What better place
than in the Ocean of Storms?
I joined NASA in the third group
of 14 astronauts in 1963.
So did Dick Gordon,
who flew with Pete in Gemini 11.
While he and the rest of the group
were jockeying for seats
on lunar landing flights,
I was assigned
to the Apollo Applications Program,
the space station which came to be known
as Skylab.
Pete called it, "Tomorrowland".
Planning things so far in the future,
who knew if they'd ever become a reality
or not?
So, while I was tucked away
in some far-off corner,
it seemed everyone else was
getting assigned mission after mission.
I guess I, sort of, felt like
the forgotten man.
But I kept an eye on
what my peers were doing,
all the guys I used to commiserate with
about not getting to fly.
Walt Cunningham
made the crew of Apollo 7.
Bill Anders, Apollo 8.
Rusty Schweickart, Apollo 9.
That left just me.
But there were others from our group
that were not so fortunate.
Ted Freeman was flying his T-38
at a couple hundred miles per hour
when a goose smashed in the plexiglass
of his cockpit.
He was killed.
Charlie Bassett died
along with Elliot See
when Elliot crashed into a building
at the McDonnell plant in St. Louis.
Roger Chaffee
was on the crew of Apollo 1,
killed in the fire
with Gus Grissom and Ed White.
And then there was CC Williams.
He was supposed to be
the original lunar module pilot
on Apollo 12, along with Pete and Dick.
He had spent the night before
our astronaut physicals
jumping up and down
to compress his spine.
There was a six-foot height limit,
and CC
was just a shade over six feet even.
He was a superb astronaut who impressed
everyone he came into contact with,
but CC was killed
when his T-38 went into a spin
over the swamps of Tallahassee.
He had been cruising at 24, 000 feet
when his controls locked
and the plane went into a steep dive.
He didn't have time to bail out.
To be honest, at that point,
I wasn't even hoping
to fly Apollo anymore.
It just...
it just hurt too much to think about it.
But I guess somebody
was looking out for me.
Somebody named Pete Conrad.
[Pete] Al, you got a minute?
Hey there, Pete. Sure.
What can I do for you?
Well, I just talked to Deke.
How'd you like to go to the moon
with Dick and me?
Do you think you can give up
all this excitement?
[Pete chews]
Al?
You okay, Al?
Okay. You're on board.
Mm-hmm.
Okay.
[Al narrating] it was such a shock.
It took some time to really sink in.
[door closes]
Of course, once on the moon,
I had little time
to think about such things.
I heard once
the real cost of us being there was
about a million dollars for each minute.
Pete and I did our best to stretch
every penny of America's money.
We're not just astronauts.
Suddenly, we're meteorologists,
seismologists,
geologists, geochemists, you name it.
[man over radio] Pete and Al, Houston.
Looks like you did your job,
we're getting data back.
[Pete over radio] Hey, Houston,
you just don't know how happy I am.
Actually, we're picking up your heavy
footsteps going by the seismometer.
[Pete over radio] It's great.
[Al narrating]
Our bosses couldn't see us
but now they knew
how fast we were working.
[Pete] Man, are you dirty.
This is dirt dirt.
[Al] Remember how
they took care of these experiments?
You had to have gloves
to touch them.
Tell them it's important
to keep the connectors and experiments
free of dust.
Uh, Dr. Wilson
asks you guys not to forget
[over radio] to try and keep the
connectors and experiments free of dust.
[both laugh]
- [Al over radio] Roger.
- [Pete laughs over radio]
[Al narrating] Dirt or no dirt,
everything worked fine.
And while we were laughing
and chatting away,
poor Dick was trying to get work done.
[Houston over radio]
Okay, Clipper, understand.
You did not copy all of that PAD.
Is that affirm?
Hey, Ed, if you want to talk to me,
you'll have to take it off relay
so Pete and Al won't cut you out.
[chuckles]
It's impossible to hear anything
with those guys yakking.
[Pete] Let's get some rocks right here.
Here's some.
[Al narrating] There were so many things
for us to remember to do
during our EVAs on the moon,
that we needed some kind of cheat sheet
that would always be within reach.
So, both of us had drafted
a cuff checklist to wear on our sleeves.
But the actual flight item was made up
by the ground crew just before launch
and put in our suits
without our even seeing them
until we were on the moon.
Thanks to Dave Scott
and the rest of our backup crew,
we had a little extra reading to do.
[laughs]
Hey, Beano! Beano!
Look at your checklist.
Beano! [laughs]
[Pete] That's the terrain for me!
[laughs]
[Al narrating]
With a 30-minute extension to our EVA,
I was able to get the core sample tube
in and out of the ground.
Pete and I got up our first load
of moon rocks.
And we dusted each other off
as much as possible,
then I started back up the ladder.
And just like that,
the first of my two four-hour moon walks
was over.
It's impossible to truly appreciate
something at the moment it's happening.
I suppose I had flashes of thought like,
"How did I get to the moon?"
But if you put yourself in my place,
your head would be filled with
so many checklists and procedures
that all you could do, really,
is lay there looking
at the panel readouts
upon which your life depends,
feeling bad about that lost TV camera.
It wasn't the reason we came
to the moon,
and I know we're all human
and we mess up,
but I sure felt bad about it.
As usual, I seem to be
a bit more sensitive about such things
than my colleagues.
I guess Pete and Dick are more typical
of the astronaut personality.
Unflappable, confident, fun-loving.
As for me, well,
one out of three ain't bad.
I mean, we did have fun together.
We were the most close-knit
of any crew that ever flew.
Pete even got us
matching gold Corvettes,
customized for our positions
on the crew.
CDR for commander,
CMP for command module pilot,
and LMP for me, the lunar module pilot.
Those men were then
and still are my best friends.
We had the attitude that if you're gonna
do all this work to get to the moon,
it might as well be fun.
No!
[engine revs]
[Al narrating] I probably
should have taken a sleeping pill,
but it wasn't the manly thing to do.
Finally, I was able to put work aside,
allow myself a moment of peace,
a moment of calm.
Finally, I got to sleep.
[electronic humming]
That doesn't sound right.
[Pete] No, it's okay.
No caution or warning lights.
- [Al] Cabin pressure's okay.
- It's the cooling pump.
Helium regulator's nominal.
It's not the burst disk.
- Al, it's the cooling pump. It's okay.
- Yeah?
Yeah.
- Cooling pump?
- [Pete] Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah, I guess you're right.
[chuckles] I am.
Okay.
Back to sleep.
- But, Al, since you're up...
- Hmm? Yeah? What?
Um...
- I've been awake for a while.
- You have? Well, so have I.
Why didn't you say anything?
This damn neck ring
is cutting into my neck.
And the cocksucker is killing me.
They snugged up my boot too tight
and it's pulling on the whole one side.
I... [sighs]
I think we're gonna have to re-lace it.
Okay.
[Al narrating]
Now that we were up,
I started thinking
about the EVA to come.
Our second and last.
We were planning
to take a very historic photo
using a special timer
we had snuck on board.
- [Dick] Come on, Beano.
- [Pete] Hurry up, Beano.
[Dick] Let's go.
- [timer buzzes]
- [Pete] Come on. Sit down.
[Dick] You got it set up?
[shutter clicks]
[Al narrating] All the photographs from
Apollo 11 were of Buzz taken by Neil.
One astronaut with maybe the other guy
reflected in his visor.
We had the idea to set up the camera
with this timer
and get both me and Pete in the picture,
and not tell anyone about it
until the film was developed.
- It was a great idea.
- Electric man.
And the only trick was
finding the right moment to do it
so Houston wouldn't catch on
to what we were up to.
By the time we made it to the Surveyor,
Pete and I had less than an hour left
outside in the Ocean of Storms.
Our first order of business
was that secret photo.
I had practiced finding the timer
plenty of times
and I never had any real trouble
getting it.
I had the whole procedure down
to just a few seconds.
And the result
would have been magnificent...
[timer buzzes]
[shutter clicks]
[shutter clicks]
[shutter clicks]
had I been able
to find the damn thing.
I'll be darned.
- [Pete] It is in there, isn't it?
- Let me look down there one more time.
[Pete] Wait a minute.
What's in your bag here?
- [Pete] It's just a film magazine.
- I'll try at this end.
[Al narrating]
I knew that I was wasting precious time.
And if it didn't turn up quick,
it would've been criminal
to continue a search in vain.
So...
- [Al] I've had it.
- Huh?
- [Al] Forget it.
- All right, I'll tell you what...
Why don't we mosey down there
and grab us what we came here for?
[Al narrating] In 1967,
Surveyor's TV camera had broadcast
the first ever television pictures
from the surface of the moon.
Now, we aimed
to take that camera home with us
so they could study
the long-term effects of the moon
on man-made machines.
Getting it would mean we had completed
each and every one
of our mission objectives.
[Pete] We got her.
[Pete] I got it. Hey, Al.
Got something for you.
[Al narrating] After more than
three hours of hard work on the moon,
I probably wasn't
the most imaginative person.
Had I been thinking fully,
that's when we would've
taken the picture with that timer.
We could have shook hands there
at the end of our EVA,
standing in front of Intrepid.
It would have been a great picture
but I didn't think of it.
There was just one last thing to do.
None of us had forgotten the reason
I was privileged enough to be there.
[Pete] We made it, CC.
[Al narrating]
We left CC's wings on the lunar surface.
He's the reason there's four stars
on our mission patch, not just three.
And then that was it.
Our walk on the moon
was officially over.
I had spent a total of seven hours
and 45 minutes walking on the moon.
In a person's lifetime,
that's nothing but a blink.
But what my eyes witnessed there
in the day I spent
at the Ocean of Storms still fuels me.
Still fills me with a sense of wonder
that is hard to put into words.
[rocket thrusts]
[Pete] What a neat ride!
[Al] Ascent's okay. So is the flag.
[Al narrating] Neil and Buzz's ascent
had knocked the crap out of their flag.
They could send a man to the moon
but they couldn't think to place the
flag 50 feet away from a rocket engine
so it wouldn't get blown over.
- Check our range and range rate.
- Okay.
Intrepid, Houston.
You are ten seconds to LOS.
We'll pick you up again
at 142:21:31 through honeysuckle.
[Pete over radio] Roger, roger, Houston.
We'll see you on the other side.
[Pete] What do you say, Al?
Want to take a minute
and fly this vehicle?
[Al narrating] Even though I was
called the lunar module pilot,
the only way I'm supposed to get to fly
the LEM is in the case of an emergency.
- You got it.
- I got it.
Some people might want the commander
to fly all the time.
And some commanders might do just that.
- How's it feel?
- It feels real good.
- Man. It's better than the sim.
- A lot better than the sim.
Yeah. Man, it really feels great.
It's unbelievable. Man.
[Al narrating] I don't know if anyone
in Houston would have criticized Pete...
but we were on
the far side of the moon...
and they had no way of knowing.
So, for a few moments on Apollo 12,
the lunar module pilot
actually piloted the lunar module...
thanks to my good friend, Pete Conrad.
- Howdy, fellas!
- [Al] Hey, Dick.
Jesus! Did you have to bring back
half the moon with you?
Uh-uh. You ain't gonna mess up
my nice clean spacecraft.
You strip down and wipe yourselves off
before you come in here.
I mean it. Go.
He's right. You're filthy.
[laughs] Welcome home, fellas.
Can I get you anything to drink?
Water? Any beverage at all?
- Ah, Beano.
- Hey there, Dick.
[laughs] Careful not to flip
any breakers with anything hanging out.
Attitude: dead man minimum.
[Al narrating]
By the time we were out of our suits,
we had to strap in and jettison
the lunar module.
- Spacecraft control, SCS.
- All right.
We're all set to jettison the LEM
in about a minute.
You know, if, uh... [chuckles]
If we were to lose the hatch
when we blow the LEM,
and one day someone was to find us
floating around up here like this...
they might be pretty confused.
[all laughing]
At least we'll go out of this world
the same way we came in, huh?
Well, you two.
You didn't come into the world
in that suit?
- No. Man, I hope not.
- [Al] At least for your mother.
[Al narrating] After a day
of lunar orbit photography
getting stereo photos of possible
landing sites for Apollo 13 and 14,
and when every piece of equipment
was stowed and every item
checked off the flight plan,
we prepared for the big burn
that would take us home.
HRB forward, check.
All right.
We're just waiting for the DSKY.
You know, I feel sort of like that song,
"Is That All There ls"?
Al Bean...
I was just thinking
the exact same thing.
[Al narrating]
Not that it wasn't amazing.
Just that the whole experience
didn't feel like a headline.
It was real, and I had lived it.
Falling through the sky
after a trip to the moon
is no more surreal an experience
than getting there in the first place,
or walking on its surface.
It's just one more step,
one more planned event
that comes about because of science
and imagination and effort.
You can go through all the manuals,
all the procedures and checklists,
all the graphs and blueprints
that show you how it is possible
to do what we did,
to go where we had gone.
And you might be impressed that such
a complicated thing was even attempted.
So impressed even
that you wouldn't realize
that the three people
who made the journey
and undertook all the challenges
contained within it were, in essence,
not that much different from yourself.
- [door bangs]
- Damn, that shower feels good.
The first time you take a shower
and it doesn't feel good
that's when you'll know
you're officially home from the moon.
[Dick chuckles]
They should let us outta here.
I don't have any diseases.
Me neither.
I just want to go to Pee Tee's
and grab me some Cajun food
and a couple of beers.
How about you, Al?
You back from the moon yet?
Yeah, I'm back.
Back from the moon.
[Pete laughs]
- What are you laughing at?
- Yeah. What's so funny?
I just... I don't think I'll ever forget
when all that good stuff
was lighting up... [laughs]
And then CAPCOM
called up SCE to auxiliary.
I know I didn't know what that meant,
and you were awfully quiet, I might add.
All I hear is Al Bean's voice,
two octaves higher than it ought to be
saying, "I know what it is."
[Al narrating]
The best record of what it was like
to have gone to the moon and return
is not in the tangible evidence
of the endeavor.
It's not in the things we took with us
or brought back.
And it wouldn't have been
in the TV footage we never got,
which I beat myself up over
for half the mission.
It's in the individual consciousness
and vision
of the human beings who made the trip.
People like Dick Gordon,
Pete Conrad, and even me.
My, that sun is bright.
It feels good.
[crowd chattering]
- Let's go.
- Yeah.
[Al narrating] In the end,
what I have left from my walk
in the Ocean of Storms are memories.
Almost like it was a trip to
the seashore or a drive in the country.
They mix together in a constant stream
of thoughts and images that come and go,
like all memories do.
The most precious things
I brought back with me
were the same things I left with,
my two best friends.
And I realize when you go through
any endeavor, any journey,
whether across town
or to the moon and back,
all that matters
is that you share the experience
with people that you love.
That's what makes life special.
Because, ultimately,
that's all there is.
That's really all there is.