In November 1969, astronauts Charles ‘Pete’ Conrad and Alan Bean rode a lunar lander down to the Moon’s Ocean of Storms, while Dick Gordon orbited overhead in the command module.
They were about to become the third and fourth humans to set foot on the Moon.
Yet, despite its incredible achievements, Apollo 12 remains largely forgotten, overshadowed by Apollo 11’s historic first steps and Apollo 13’s near-disaster.
But Apollo 12 was a mission unlike any other.
It was nearly aborted before leaving Earth’s atmosphere, saw a bad swing of the arm destroy critical equipment, and, in a moment of pure absurdity—there was Playboy magazine on the Moon.
A Lightning Strike Almost Killed the Mission
Perhaps the most famous moment of Apollo 12 happened just seconds after launch.
As the Saturn V rocket roared off the pad, a lightning bolt struck the spacecraft, scrambling its electrical systems.
Thirteen seconds later, another bolt struck, cutting out nearly all of the ship’s instruments.
The astronauts, feeling the crushing G-forces of acceleration, had no idea if they were about to die in a catastrophic explosion.
The situation in Mission Control was pure chaos.
Data feeds were spitting incoherent numbers, and NASA had mere seconds to abort the mission or press forward.
For 28 agonizing seconds, no one spoke.
Then, a 24-year-old NASA officer named John Aaron remembered seeing a similar glitch in a training simulation. He made the now-legendary call:
“Apollo 12, Houston. Try SCE to auxiliary.”
No one in the cockpit even knew what SCE to auxiliary meant—except for Alan Bean, who flipped the switch.
Almost instantly, the spacecraft’s instruments snapped back to life. The Apollo 12 mission was saved.
A Wager, A Moonwalk, And A $500 Bet
When Pete Conrad stepped onto the Moon, his first words weren’t a carefully scripted statement like Neil Armstrong’s famous line.
Instead, he yelled with glee:
“Whoopee! Man, that may have been a small one for Neil, but that’s a long one for me.”
This wasn’t just a joke about Conrad’s shorter height (5’6”) compared to Armstrong (5’11”). It was part of a $500 bet.
Before the mission, Conrad had argued that NASA didn’t script astronaut lines, and to prove it, he and journalist Oriana Fallaci made a wager: If Conrad could say anything he wanted as his first words on the Moon, he’d win the bet.
He never collected the money, but his iconic phrase remains one of the most rebellious moments in space history.
The Camera Fail
Apollo 12 was set to be a media spectacle, improving on Apollo 11’s grainy black-and-white TV feed.
NASA sent a color camera to capture crisp footage of Conrad and Bean’s lunar adventure.
But 42 minutes in, disaster struck—Bean accidentally pointed the camera directly at the Sun, frying its internal components.
With no live visuals from the Moon, the world missed out on Apollo 12’s most incredible moments.
NASA, however, learned from the mistake and developed strict protocols for future cameras, including mandatory lens caps.
Playboy on the Moon? The Apollo 12 Prank
Astronauts were given detailed checklists on their wrists to guide them through their high-stakes Moonwalks.
But backup commander Dave Scott saw an opportunity for mischief.
Without the crew knowing, he slipped in a few surprises—copies of Playboy centerfolds, complete with cheeky captions like “Seen any interesting hills and valleys?”
When Bean flipped a page and saw the image, he immediately ran over to show Conrad.
The two astronauts were so amused that their laughter was noticeable in mission recordings, leading some to joke that they were experiencing “space rapture”.
NASA didn’t publicly acknowledge the prank at the time, but decades later, the infamous Moon Playboy photos surfaced in NASA’s official archives under the unimaginative labels: “Playmate No. 1” and “Playmate No. 2”.
Apollo 12: The Forgotten Mission That Deserves More Recognition
Despite its near-disaster launch, groundbreaking experiments, and legendary pranks, Apollo 12 remains largely overlooked.
But it set critical precedents that shaped future missions:
- It was the first precision landing, proving astronauts could target specific Moon locations.
- It recovered pieces of an old lunar probe, giving scientists their first opportunity to study equipment that had been on the Moon for years.
- It demonstrated that astronauts could work effectively on the lunar surface for extended periods, paving the way for Apollo 15, 16, and 17’s ambitious geology missions.
Yet, Apollo 12 also serves as a stark reminder of NASA’s “boys’ club” era.
While astronauts smuggled Playboy into space, Margaret Hamilton’s programming genius was the real reason Apollo missions succeeded.
And while the Soviet Union launched the first woman into space in 1963, NASA wouldn’t send a female astronaut until 1983—14 years after Apollo 12.
So while Apollo 12 may be remembered for a Moonwalk prank, a lightning strike, and an accidental camera failure, its true legacy is much greater.
It proved that landing on the Moon wasn’t a fluke—it was something humanity could master.
And for that, Apollo 12 deserves more than just a footnote in space history.
