The Incredible Journey of Apollo 12
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It's the ultimate buddy movie, with two astronauts hitting the road and landing on the moon. Earth. November 14, 1969. Three astronauts, with spacesuits, food, water, and a battery of scientific and communications equipment, prepared to fly to the moon. Thousands gathered at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, including President and Mrs. Richard Nixon, to witness the historic launch. It was raining that day, but that was no cause for delay. The ship that would carry them into space was designed to launch in any weather. But how would it respond to a powerful electrical storm now gathering above the launch pad? That was just the beginning of the incredible journey of Apollo 12. With three astronauts fastened into their seats, the countdown proceeded. Astronaut and Mission Commander Pete Conrad would say later: "The flight was extremely normal, for the first 36 seconds." The five engines of the Saturn 5's huge first stage were designed to burn through 5 million pounds of liquid oxygen in just two and a half minutes, and to send the spacecraft up 67 kilometers above the Atlantic Ocean. When it reached an altitude of 2000 meters, something unexpected happened. Racing through the stormy environment, the rocket generated a lightning bolt that traveled down its highly conductive exhaust trail. Another bolt hit 16 seconds later. All of the spacecraft's circuit breakers shut off. The tracking system was lost. A young flight controller in Houston, Texas instructed astronaut Alan Bean on how to turn on an auxiliary power system. The mission was back on track. Once in Earth orbit, all systems appeared to check out, and flight control officials gave the crew the green light to leave Earth. The astronauts were not told of concern that the lighting strikes had damaged the pyrotechnic system used to deploy the parachutes that would ease them back through the Earth's atmosphere. If that system failed, the astronauts would not return alive. This mission would have its share of perils, not unlike those faced by a long line of past explorers, whose courage and restless spirit propelled them into the unknown. This one, however, was backed by years of technology development, test flights, astronaut training, and the largest support team back home that any mission ever had. But hundreds of thousands of kilometers out in space the three astronauts were pretty much on their own. What made Apollo 12 unique was the friendship and chemistry of its crew. Conrad, Bean, and Richard Gordon were all Navy men. Working and training together on the Gemini program, they had gained each other's respect and trust. Now, hurtling across more than 400,000 kilometers to the moon, they prepared to fullfill the mission's goals. One was to set up a scientific station designed to record seismic, atmospheric, and solar data. Another was to visit an unmanned lunar probe called Surveyor III that had landed there two and a half years before. The idea was to bring back a part to study the effect of the lunar environment. A third goal was to improve on the landing of Apollo 11 just 5 months before. Dropping down over a region called the Sea of Tranquility, pilot Neil Armstrong found himself heading straight for a crater full of boulders. He had to fly over the planned landing site and find a new one. Now kilometers beyond the target, the lander, called Eagle, was literally running out of gas. With less than 30 seconds of fuel left, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin finally touched down on a landscape obscured by dust stirred up by the vehicle's thrusters. Future astronauts would have to be able to make precision landings at locations dictated by science. That meant they would have to touch down on landscapes filled with all kinds of rocks and craters. For Apollo 12, the science pointed to a region known as the Ocean of Storms, some 2000 kilometers from where the Eagle had landed. Here, the landscape is dark from lava that cooled to form its flat expanse billions of years ago.
Comments
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Fuck all retarded Conspirationnists in the World !
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sounds a bit like Morgan Freeman. Good enough to watch
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Space Center is real!
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reading the comments feels more like watching the jerry springer show now not sure if that s the rite spelling :)
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why do people always bad mouth each other in the comment section we all have our own opinion it doesn't mean anyone is rite or wrong its just an opinion and besides none of us are rocket scientists or astronauts so how would we know ? but hey thats just my opinion>
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Wow Its amazing how different each lunar mission was. I assumed each apollo mission was more or less the same. But in apollo 12 they released the lunar module near the moon to crash onto the surface rather than into deep space.
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What a load of shit... You know how good hollywood are.
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O negocio é grudado com arrebite? e aguentou a viagem ?
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Ummm, at 19:50 - 54 do I see the LM 'take off' - and leave it's shadow behind? Too funny - too fake! rofl!
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When a person can't swear under oath makes me wonder and I have an open mind. Won't mention event but appears those under tinfoil hats got it right.
Flat Earth for another day. -
Fake👎👎
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Has anyone noticed this doc used Apollo 13 footage? I read back but I'm not reading everything.
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WOW. What an awesome video; the Americans who walked on the moon are truly heroes.
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How come I see the Apollo 13 crew in this video??????
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HI, WHY THE U.S. GOVERNMENT DON'T TELL ONCE AND FOR ALL THAT THE MOON MISSIONS WERE A HOAX, IS ONE OF YOU DO HAVE AN ANSWER.
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I was just a kid when NASA sent Apollo 12 to the moon. The entire mission was amazing to watch. This stimulated an entire generation to attend university and focus on more manned missions to the moon and now mars. What's after mars? Its exciting to think about and contemplate. The biggest question is when do we leave out solar system and go to another one? Hundreds of years from now. Happy travels future generations!
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NASA should use ask Ron Howard to remake all the end-of-mission reports.
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3:30 Well they would return alive, they just would stay that way after landing.
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fantesia, noting real
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Back when America could do great things...we are now a different nation without knowing how it happened..
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