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Apollo 12 Mission Summary and Highlights - featuring Splashdown with President Nixon

196966 min 0 sec116 shots

NASA’s 1969 film summarizes Apollo 12 from prelaunch preparations through return and recovery. Astronauts Pete Conrad, Dick Gordon, and Alan Bean leave their quarters, board the spacecraft amid rain near the launch pad, and lift off from Cape Kennedy on a Saturn rocket. After the launch, President Nixon thanks the workers who made the mission possible and describes spaceflight as a source of national pride and a positive goal for young people. Lunar-surface recordings capture Conrad’s first step and the crew’s arrival at a Surveyor spacecraft beside a crater.

Much of the film covers the command module’s return and the recovery operation at sea. The capsule descends by parachute, splashes into the ocean, and is stabilized as swimmers attach a sea anchor, flotation collar, and rafts. All three astronauts leave the capsule, rest in a raft, and are hoisted one at a time into a Navy helicopter, with recovery personnel reporting that they are in good condition. Closing footage shows the helicopter landing on a carrier deck and a large crowd gathered in a control room.

Provenance and rights

Original producer: NASA
Collection: NASA Image and Video Library
Original title: Apollo 12 Mission Summary and Highlights - featuring Splashdown with President Nixon
Date: 1969
Original link: Open on images.nasa.gov
Rights: public_domain