Pete Conrad
Encyclopedia
Charles "Pete" Conrad, Jr. (June 2, 1930 – July 8, 1999) was an American
naval officer, astronaut
and engineer
, and the third person to walk on the Moon during the Apollo 12
mission. He set an eight-day space endurance record along with command pilot Gordon Cooper
on the Gemini 5
mission, and commanded the Gemini 11
mission. After Apollo, he commanded the Skylab 2
mission, on which he and his crew repaired significant launch damage to the Skylab
space station. For this, President Jimmy Carter
awarded him the Congressional Space Medal of Honor
in 1978.
, the third child and first son of Charles Conrad, Sr. and Frances De Rappelage Conrad (née Vinson), a well-to-do real estate and banking family. His mother wanted very much to name her newborn son “Peter”, but Charles insisted that his first son bear his name. In a compromise between two iron wills, the name on his birth certificate would read “Charles Conrad, Jr.” but to his mother and virtually all who knew him, he was “Peter”. When he was 21, his fiancée’s father called him “Pete” and thereafter, Conrad adopted it. For the rest of his life, to virtually everyone, he was “Pete”.
The Great Depression had wiped out the Conrad family’s fortune as it had that of so many others. In 1942, they lost their Philadelphia manor home and moved into a small carriage house, paid for by Frances’s brother, Egerton Vinson. Eventually, Charles, Sr., broken by financial failure, left his family.
From the beginning, Conrad was clearly a bright, intelligent child, but he continually struggled with his school work. He suffered from dyslexia
, a condition which was little understood at the time. Conrad attended The Haverford School
, a private academy in Haverford, Pennsylvania where previous generations of Conrads had attended. Even after his family’s financial downturn, his uncle Egerton supported his continued attendance at Haverford. However, Conrad’s dyslexia continued to frustrate his academic efforts. After he failed most of his 11th grade exams, Haverford expelled him.
Conrad’s mother refused to believe her son was unintelligent, and set about finding him a suitable school. She found the Darrow School
in New Lebanon, New York. There, Conrad learned how to apply a systems approach to learning, and thus, found a way to work around his dyslexia. Despite having to repeat the 11th grade, Conrad so excelled at Darrow that after his graduation in 1949, he not only was admitted to Princeton University
, but he was also awarded a full Navy ROTC scholarship in the bargain.
Starting when he was fifteen, Conrad worked summers at Paoli
Airfield near Philadelphia, trading lawn mowing, sweeping, and other odd jobs for airplane rides and occasional stick-time. As he grew, and learned more about the mechanics and workings of aircraft and their engines, he graduated to minor repairs and maintenance. When he was 16, he drove almost 100 miles (160.9 km) to assist a flight instructor whose plane had been forced to make an emergency landing due to a throttle malfunction. Conrad repaired the plane single-handedly. Thereafter, the instructor gave Conrad the formal lessons he needed to earn his pilot’s license even before he graduated from high school.
Conrad continued flying while in college, not only maintaining his pilot’s license, but earning an instrument rating as well. He earned his bachelor's degree
in Aeronautical Engineering from Princeton University
in 1953, after which he entered the United States Navy
. [R 83] Conrad excelled in Navy flight school, and became a carrier pilot, known by the call sign “Squarewave”. Later, he became a flight instructor and a test pilot at Naval Air Station Patuxent River
.
Conrad was invited to participate in the selection process for what would become the first group of NASA
astronauts (the “Mercury Seven
”). Conrad, like his fellow candidates, underwent several days of what he considered to be invasive, demeaning, and unnecessary medical and psychological testing at the Lovelace Clinic in New Mexico
. Unlike his fellow candidates, however, Conrad rebelled against the regimen. During a Rorschach inkblot test
, he told the psychiatrist that one blot card revealed a sexual encounter complete with lurid detail. When shown the next card, he studied it for a moment then said with a deadpan face, “It’s upside down.” When he was asked to deliver a stool sample to the on-site lab, he placed it in a gift box and tied a red ribbon around it. Eventually, he decided he'd had enough. After dropping his full enema bag on the desk of the Clinic’s commanding officer he walked out. His initial NASA application was denied with the notation not suitable for long-duration flight.
Thereafter, when NASA
announced its search for a second group of astronauts, Alan Shepard
, who knew Conrad from their time as Naval aviators and test pilots, approached Conrad and persuaded him to re-apply. This time, the medical tests were less offensive and Conrad was invited to join NASA.
Conrad joined NASA as part of the second group of astronauts, known as the New Nine, on September 17, 1962. Regarded as one of the best pilots in the group, he was among the first of his group to be assigned a Gemini mission. As pilot of Gemini 5
he, along with his commander Gordon Cooper
, set a new space endurance record of eight days. The duration of the Gemini 5 flight was actually 7 days 22 hours and 55 minutes, surpassing the then-current Russian record of five days. Eight days was the time required for the first manned lunar landing missions. Conrad facetiously referred to the Gemini 5
capsule as a flying garbage can.
Conrad tested many spacecraft systems essential to the Apollo program. Conrad was also one of the smallest of the astronauts in height, 1.69 metres or 5 feet 6½ inches, so he found the confinement of the Gemini capsule less onerous than his commander, Gordon Cooper
who played American football, did. He was then named commander of the Gemini 8
back-up crew, and later commander of Gemini 11
, which docked with an Agena target module immediately after achieving orbit. Such a maneuver was an engineering and flight test because it was very similar to what the Apollo Command Module (CM) and what was referred to at that time as the Lunar Excursion Module (LEM) would later be required to do. Later, NASA would change the name of the Lunar Excursion Module to simply Lunar Module or LM, because NASA leadership wated to acquire funding to engineer a battery powered cart that would eventually be referred to as the Lunar Rover
.
disaster, NASA’s plan to incrementally test Saturn V
and Apollo spacecraft
components leading to the lunar landing had to be significantly revised in order to meet John F. Kennedy
’s goal of reaching the Moon by the end of the decade. Initially, Conrad was assigned to command the back-up crew for the first flight of the Saturn V and complete Apollo spacecraft, including the Lunar Module
(LM) into low Earth orbit
, which was initially scheduled as Apollo 8. But when the LM wasn't ready in time, a lunar orbit mission without the LM was approved and inserted into the schedule as Apollo 8
, and the mission backed up by Conrad subsequently became Apollo 9
. Deke Slayton
’s practice in assigning crews was to assign a back-up crew as prime crew for the third mission after that crew’s back-up mission. Without the 8-9 swap, Conrad might have commanded Apollo 11
, which became the first mission to land on the Moon.
On November 14, 1969, Apollo 12
launched with Conrad as commander, Dick Gordon
as Command Module Pilot and Alan Bean
as Lunar Module Pilot. The launch was the most harrowing of the Apollo program, as a series of lightning strikes just after liftoff temporarily knocked out power and guidance in the command module. Five days later, after stepping onto the lunar surface, Conrad joked about his own small stature by remarking:
He later revealed that he said this in order to win a bet he had made with the Italian journalist Oriana Fallaci
for $500 to prove that NASA did not script astronaut comments. (In actuality, Conrad's "long one" and Armstrong's "small step" refer to two different actions: going from the ladder down to the landing pad, then stepping horizontally off the pad onto the lunar surface. Conrad's words for stepping onto the Moon were "Oooh, is that soft and queasy.")
, the first crew to board the space station. The station had been damaged on its unmanned launch, when its micrometeroid shield tore away, taking one of two main solar panels with it and jamming the other one so that it could not deploy. Conrad and his crew repaired the damage on two spacewalks. Conrad managed to pull free the stuck solar panel by sheer brute force, an action of which he was particularly proud. The astronauts also erected a "parasol" solar shield to protect the station from intense solar heating, a function which the lost micrometeroid shield was supposed to perform. Without the shield, the Skylab and its contents would have become unusable President Jimmy Carter
honored Conrad for this in 1978 by awarding him the Congressional Space Medal of Honor
.
from 1976 into the 1990s. After an engine fell off a McDonnell-Douglas DC-10 causing it to crash with the loss of all passengers and crew
in 1979, Conrad spearheaded McDonnell-Douglas’s ultimately unsuccessful efforts to allay the fears of the public and policymakers, and save the plane’s reputation.
During the 1990s he was the ground-based pilot for several test flights of the Delta Clipper
experimental single stage to orbit launch vehicle.
On February 14, 1996, Conrad was part of the crew on a record-breaking around-the-world flight in a Learjet owned by cable TV pioneer, Bill Daniels
. The flight lasted 49 hours, 26 minutes and 8 seconds. Today the jet is on permanent static display at Denver International Airport's Terminal C.
In 2006, NASA
posthumously awarded him the Ambassador of Exploration Award for his work for the agency and science.
, whose family owned a 1600 acres (6.5 km²) ranch near Uvalde, Texas
. Her father, Winn DuBose, was the first person to call Conrad “Pete” rather than “Peter,” the name he had used since birth. Upon his graduation from Princeton and acceptance of his Navy commission, Conrad and Jane were married on June 16, 1953. They had four children, all boys: Peter, born in 1954, Thomas, Andrew, and his youngest, Christopher, born in 1961.
Given the demands of his career in the Navy and NASA, Pete and Jane spent a great deal of time apart, and Pete saw less of his boys growing up than he would have liked. Even after he retired from NASA and the Navy, he kept himself busy. Soon, Jane had established a separate life for herself. In 1988, with their sons all grown and moved out, Pete and Jane divorced. Some years later, Jane remarried.
In 1989, Conrad’s youngest son, Christopher, was stricken with a malignant lymphoma
. He died in April 1990, at the age of 28.
Conrad met Nancy Marjorie Crane, a Denver divorcee, through mutual friends. After a time, their friendship blossomed. Pete Conrad and Nancy Marjorie Crane were married in San Francisco in the spring of 1990.
, with friends, he ran off the road and crashed. His injuries were first thought to be minor, but he died from internal bleeding
about six hours later. He was buried with full honors at Arlington National Cemetery
, with many Apollo-era astronauts in attendance.
by Tom Wolfe
. Much of the book's insight into the attitudes and behavior of both the astronauts and their wives before and during the astronaut selection process are presented through the eyes of Conrad and his wife. In the movie, much of this was shifted to Alan Shepard
and the other Mercury astronauts.
In the 1995 film Apollo 13
, Conrad was played by David Andrews
. In the 1998 HBO miniseries From the Earth to the Moon, he was played by Peter Scolari
(in episode 1, "Can We Do This?") and by Paul McCrane
(in episode 7, "That's All There Is").
A month before he died, Conrad appeared on ABC News Nightline and said, I think the Space Shuttle
is worth one billion dollars a launch. I think that it is worth two billion dollars for what it does. I think the Shuttle is worth it for the work it does.
If you don't know what to do, don't do anything.—Conrad's advice for working in space, quoted in the book From the Earth to the Moon.
, includes a grove of trees planted to honor the memory of astronauts who have died. After Conrad’s death, NASA
planted a tree in his honor. During the dedication ceremony, Apollo 12
crewmate Alan Bean
, during his speech, irreverently “channeled” Conrad, who purportedly sent instructions from the great beyond. According to Bean, Conrad’s instructions were that NASA light the trees every Christmas season with white lights—but that in keeping with his motto, his tree was to have colored lights. NASA has honored this “request,” and every Christmas since, all the trees in the grove are lit with white lights—except his tree, which is lit with red lights.
Students design products in personal space flight, lunar exploration and renewable energy. NASA’s call for a human return to the moon and the increased interest in space transportation are the foundation of this year’s Conrad Award aerospace challenges. In addition, students will answer Al Gore’s energy challenge to America, by using renewable energy to change everyday life.
“This generation like every other generation, has the ability to design its future. Our award provides the resources for them to do so,” said Nancy Conrad, wife of the late Pete Conrad and founder of the Conrad Foundation.
Students create unique products, produce viable business plans, and are given opportunities to bring their ideas to market. This competition provides students with the ability to network with scientists, university professors, world business leaders, venture capitalists and entrepreneurs. “Winning is just the beginning,” said Nancy Conrad. “This competition is the pipeline from education to industry. We have not only created a program, we’re driving a movement.”
In May 2007 the X PRIZE Foundation
announced the creation of the Pete Conrad Spirit of Innovation Award, to be presented to "the high school team that develops the most creative, new space concept to benefit the emerging personal spaceflight industry." The first award was presented at the 2007 Wirefly X PRIZE Cup at the Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico, it was presented to two students from Milken Community High School
.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
naval officer, astronaut
Astronaut
An astronaut or cosmonaut is a person trained by a human spaceflight program to command, pilot, or serve as a crew member of a spacecraft....
and engineer
Engineer
An engineer is a professional practitioner of engineering, concerned with applying scientific knowledge, mathematics and ingenuity to develop solutions for technical problems. Engineers design materials, structures, machines and systems while considering the limitations imposed by practicality,...
, and the third person to walk on the Moon during the Apollo 12
Apollo 12
Apollo 12 was the sixth manned flight in the American Apollo program and the second to land on the Moon . It was launched on November 14, 1969 from the Kennedy Space Center, Florida, four months after Apollo 11. Mission commander Charles "Pete" Conrad and Lunar Module Pilot Alan L...
mission. He set an eight-day space endurance record along with command pilot Gordon Cooper
Gordon Cooper
Leroy Gordon Cooper, Jr. , also known as Gordon Cooper, was an American aeronautical engineer, test pilot and NASA astronaut. Cooper was one of the seven original astronauts in Project Mercury, the first manned space effort by the United States...
on the Gemini 5
Gemini 5
Gemini 5 was a 1965 manned spaceflight in NASA's Gemini program. It was the third manned Gemini flight, the 11th manned American flight and the 19th spaceflight of all time...
mission, and commanded the Gemini 11
Gemini 11
Gemini 11 was the ninth manned spaceflight mission of NASA's Project Gemini, which flew from September 12 to 15, 1966. It was the 17th manned American flight and the 25th spaceflight to that time . Astronauts Charles "Pete" Conrad, Jr. and Richard F. Gordon, Jr...
mission. After Apollo, he commanded the Skylab 2
Skylab 2
-Backup crew:-Support crew:*Robert L. Crippen*Richard H. Truly*Henry W. Hartsfield, Jr*William E. Thornton-Mission parameters:*Mass: 19,979 kg*Maximum Altitude: 440 km*Distance: 18,536,730.9 km...
mission, on which he and his crew repaired significant launch damage to the Skylab
Skylab
Skylab was a space station launched and operated by NASA, the space agency of the United States. Skylab orbited the Earth from 1973 to 1979, and included a workshop, a solar observatory, and other systems. It was launched unmanned by a modified Saturn V rocket, with a mass of...
space station. For this, President Jimmy Carter
Jimmy Carter
James Earl "Jimmy" Carter, Jr. is an American politician who served as the 39th President of the United States and was the recipient of the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize, the only U.S. President to have received the Prize after leaving office...
awarded him the Congressional Space Medal of Honor
Congressional Space Medal of Honor
The Congressional Space Medal of Honor was authorized by the United States Congress in 1969 to recognize "any astronaut who in the performance of his duties has distinguished himself by exceptionally meritorious efforts and contributions to the welfare of the Nation and mankind." The highest award...
in 1978.
Early life and Navy career
Pete Conrad was born on June 2, 1930, in Philadelphia, PennsylvaniaPennsylvania
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...
, the third child and first son of Charles Conrad, Sr. and Frances De Rappelage Conrad (née Vinson), a well-to-do real estate and banking family. His mother wanted very much to name her newborn son “Peter”, but Charles insisted that his first son bear his name. In a compromise between two iron wills, the name on his birth certificate would read “Charles Conrad, Jr.” but to his mother and virtually all who knew him, he was “Peter”. When he was 21, his fiancée’s father called him “Pete” and thereafter, Conrad adopted it. For the rest of his life, to virtually everyone, he was “Pete”.
The Great Depression had wiped out the Conrad family’s fortune as it had that of so many others. In 1942, they lost their Philadelphia manor home and moved into a small carriage house, paid for by Frances’s brother, Egerton Vinson. Eventually, Charles, Sr., broken by financial failure, left his family.
From the beginning, Conrad was clearly a bright, intelligent child, but he continually struggled with his school work. He suffered from dyslexia
Dyslexia
Dyslexia is a very broad term defining a learning disability that impairs a person's fluency or comprehension accuracy in being able to read, and which can manifest itself as a difficulty with phonological awareness, phonological decoding, orthographic coding, auditory short-term memory, or rapid...
, a condition which was little understood at the time. Conrad attended The Haverford School
The Haverford School
The Haverford School is a private, non-sectarian, all-boys college preparatory day school, junior kindergarten through grade twelve. Founded in 1884 as The Haverford College Grammar School, it is located in Haverford, Pennsylvania, nine miles northwest of Philadelphia, on Philadelphia's historic...
, a private academy in Haverford, Pennsylvania where previous generations of Conrads had attended. Even after his family’s financial downturn, his uncle Egerton supported his continued attendance at Haverford. However, Conrad’s dyslexia continued to frustrate his academic efforts. After he failed most of his 11th grade exams, Haverford expelled him.
Conrad’s mother refused to believe her son was unintelligent, and set about finding him a suitable school. She found the Darrow School
Darrow School
Darrow School is an Independent co-educational high school. Its New Lebanon campus is a property in the Berkshire Hills, which are a southern extension of the Green Mountains of Vermont.-History:...
in New Lebanon, New York. There, Conrad learned how to apply a systems approach to learning, and thus, found a way to work around his dyslexia. Despite having to repeat the 11th grade, Conrad so excelled at Darrow that after his graduation in 1949, he not only was admitted to Princeton University
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution....
, but he was also awarded a full Navy ROTC scholarship in the bargain.
Starting when he was fifteen, Conrad worked summers at Paoli
Paoli, Pennsylvania
Paoli is a census-designated place in Chester County near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. It is situated in portions of two townships: Tredyffrin and Willistown...
Airfield near Philadelphia, trading lawn mowing, sweeping, and other odd jobs for airplane rides and occasional stick-time. As he grew, and learned more about the mechanics and workings of aircraft and their engines, he graduated to minor repairs and maintenance. When he was 16, he drove almost 100 miles (160.9 km) to assist a flight instructor whose plane had been forced to make an emergency landing due to a throttle malfunction. Conrad repaired the plane single-handedly. Thereafter, the instructor gave Conrad the formal lessons he needed to earn his pilot’s license even before he graduated from high school.
Conrad continued flying while in college, not only maintaining his pilot’s license, but earning an instrument rating as well. He earned his bachelor's degree
Bachelor's degree
A bachelor's degree is usually an academic degree awarded for an undergraduate course or major that generally lasts for three or four years, but can range anywhere from two to six years depending on the region of the world...
in Aeronautical Engineering from Princeton University
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution....
in 1953, after which he entered the United States Navy
United States Navy
The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...
. [R 83] Conrad excelled in Navy flight school, and became a carrier pilot, known by the call sign “Squarewave”. Later, he became a flight instructor and a test pilot at Naval Air Station Patuxent River
Naval Air Station Patuxent River
"Pax River" redirects here. For the river, see Patuxent River.Naval Air Station Patuxent River , also known as NAS Pax River, is a United States Naval Air Station located in St. Mary's County, Maryland on the Chesapeake Bay near the mouth of the Patuxent River. It is home to the U.S...
.
Conrad was invited to participate in the selection process for what would become the first group of NASA
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research...
astronauts (the “Mercury Seven
Mercury Seven
Mercury Seven was the group of seven Mercury astronauts selected by NASA on April 9, 1959. They are also referred to as the Original Seven and Astronaut Group 1...
”). Conrad, like his fellow candidates, underwent several days of what he considered to be invasive, demeaning, and unnecessary medical and psychological testing at the Lovelace Clinic in New Mexico
New Mexico
New Mexico is a state located in the southwest and western regions of the United States. New Mexico is also usually considered one of the Mountain States. With a population density of 16 per square mile, New Mexico is the sixth-most sparsely inhabited U.S...
. Unlike his fellow candidates, however, Conrad rebelled against the regimen. During a Rorschach inkblot test
Rorschach inkblot test
The Rorschach test is a psychological test in which subjects' perceptions of inkblots are recorded and then analyzed using psychological interpretation, complex algorithms, or both. Some psychologists use this test to examine a person's personality characteristics and emotional functioning...
, he told the psychiatrist that one blot card revealed a sexual encounter complete with lurid detail. When shown the next card, he studied it for a moment then said with a deadpan face, “It’s upside down.” When he was asked to deliver a stool sample to the on-site lab, he placed it in a gift box and tied a red ribbon around it. Eventually, he decided he'd had enough. After dropping his full enema bag on the desk of the Clinic’s commanding officer he walked out. His initial NASA application was denied with the notation not suitable for long-duration flight.
Thereafter, when NASA
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research...
announced its search for a second group of astronauts, Alan Shepard
Alan Shepard
Alan Bartlett Shepard, Jr. was an American naval aviator, test pilot, flag officer, and NASA astronaut who in 1961 became the second person, and the first American, in space. This Mercury flight was designed to enter space, but not to achieve orbit...
, who knew Conrad from their time as Naval aviators and test pilots, approached Conrad and persuaded him to re-apply. This time, the medical tests were less offensive and Conrad was invited to join NASA.
Gemini
Gemini 5
Gemini 5 was a 1965 manned spaceflight in NASA's Gemini program. It was the third manned Gemini flight, the 11th manned American flight and the 19th spaceflight of all time...
he, along with his commander Gordon Cooper
Gordon Cooper
Leroy Gordon Cooper, Jr. , also known as Gordon Cooper, was an American aeronautical engineer, test pilot and NASA astronaut. Cooper was one of the seven original astronauts in Project Mercury, the first manned space effort by the United States...
, set a new space endurance record of eight days. The duration of the Gemini 5 flight was actually 7 days 22 hours and 55 minutes, surpassing the then-current Russian record of five days. Eight days was the time required for the first manned lunar landing missions. Conrad facetiously referred to the Gemini 5
Gemini 5
Gemini 5 was a 1965 manned spaceflight in NASA's Gemini program. It was the third manned Gemini flight, the 11th manned American flight and the 19th spaceflight of all time...
capsule as a flying garbage can.
Conrad tested many spacecraft systems essential to the Apollo program. Conrad was also one of the smallest of the astronauts in height, 1.69 metres or 5 feet 6½ inches, so he found the confinement of the Gemini capsule less onerous than his commander, Gordon Cooper
Gordon Cooper
Leroy Gordon Cooper, Jr. , also known as Gordon Cooper, was an American aeronautical engineer, test pilot and NASA astronaut. Cooper was one of the seven original astronauts in Project Mercury, the first manned space effort by the United States...
who played American football, did. He was then named commander of the Gemini 8
Gemini 8
-Backup crew:-Mission parameters:* Mass: * Perigee: * Apogee: * Inclination: 28.91°* Period: 88.83 min-Objectives:Gemini VIII had two major objectives, of which it achieved one...
back-up crew, and later commander of Gemini 11
Gemini 11
Gemini 11 was the ninth manned spaceflight mission of NASA's Project Gemini, which flew from September 12 to 15, 1966. It was the 17th manned American flight and the 25th spaceflight to that time . Astronauts Charles "Pete" Conrad, Jr. and Richard F. Gordon, Jr...
, which docked with an Agena target module immediately after achieving orbit. Such a maneuver was an engineering and flight test because it was very similar to what the Apollo Command Module (CM) and what was referred to at that time as the Lunar Excursion Module (LEM) would later be required to do. Later, NASA would change the name of the Lunar Excursion Module to simply Lunar Module or LM, because NASA leadership wated to acquire funding to engineer a battery powered cart that would eventually be referred to as the Lunar Rover
Lunar rover
The Lunar Roving Vehicle or lunar rover was a battery-powered four-wheeled rover used on the Moon in the last three missions of the American Apollo program during 1971 and 1972...
.
Apollo
In the aftermath of the January 1967 Apollo 1Apollo 1
Apollo 1 was scheduled to be the first manned mission of the Apollo manned lunar landing program, with a target launch date of February 21, 1967. A cabin fire during a launch pad test on January 27 at Launch Pad 34 at Cape Canaveral killed all three crew members: Command Pilot Virgil "Gus"...
disaster, NASA’s plan to incrementally test Saturn V
Saturn V
The Saturn V was an American human-rated expendable rocket used by NASA's Apollo and Skylab programs from 1967 until 1973. A multistage liquid-fueled launch vehicle, NASA launched 13 Saturn Vs from the Kennedy Space Center, Florida with no loss of crew or payload...
and Apollo spacecraft
Apollo spacecraft
The Apollo spacecraft was composed of five combined parts designed to accomplish the American Apollo program's goal of landing astronauts on the Moon by the end of the 1960s and returning them safely to Earth...
components leading to the lunar landing had to be significantly revised in order to meet John F. Kennedy
John F. Kennedy
John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy , often referred to by his initials JFK, was the 35th President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963....
’s goal of reaching the Moon by the end of the decade. Initially, Conrad was assigned to command the back-up crew for the first flight of the Saturn V and complete Apollo spacecraft, including the Lunar Module
Apollo Lunar Module
The Apollo Lunar Module was the lander portion of the Apollo spacecraft built for the US Apollo program by Grumman to carry a crew of two from lunar orbit to the surface and back...
(LM) into low Earth orbit
Low Earth orbit
A low Earth orbit is generally defined as an orbit within the locus extending from the Earth’s surface up to an altitude of 2,000 km...
, which was initially scheduled as Apollo 8. But when the LM wasn't ready in time, a lunar orbit mission without the LM was approved and inserted into the schedule as Apollo 8
Apollo 8
Apollo 8, the second manned mission in the American Apollo space program, was the first human spaceflight to leave Earth orbit; the first to be captured by and escape from the gravitational field of another celestial body; and the first crewed voyage to return to Earth from another celestial...
, and the mission backed up by Conrad subsequently became Apollo 9
Apollo 9
Apollo 9, the third manned mission in the American Apollo space program, was the first flight of the Command/Service Module with the Lunar Module...
. Deke Slayton
Deke Slayton
Donald Kent Slayton , better known as Deke Slayton, was an American World War II pilot and later, one of the original NASA Mercury Seven astronauts....
’s practice in assigning crews was to assign a back-up crew as prime crew for the third mission after that crew’s back-up mission. Without the 8-9 swap, Conrad might have commanded Apollo 11
Apollo 11
In early 1969, Bill Anders accepted a job with the National Space Council effective in August 1969 and announced his retirement as an astronaut. At that point Ken Mattingly was moved from the support crew into parallel training with Anders as backup Command Module Pilot in case Apollo 11 was...
, which became the first mission to land on the Moon.
On November 14, 1969, Apollo 12
Apollo 12
Apollo 12 was the sixth manned flight in the American Apollo program and the second to land on the Moon . It was launched on November 14, 1969 from the Kennedy Space Center, Florida, four months after Apollo 11. Mission commander Charles "Pete" Conrad and Lunar Module Pilot Alan L...
launched with Conrad as commander, Dick Gordon
Richard F. Gordon, Jr.
Richard Francis Gordon, Jr., Captain, USN, Ret. is a retired NASA astronaut. He is one of only 24 people to have flown to the Moon.-Military and flight experience:Gordon was born in Seattle, Washington...
as Command Module Pilot and Alan Bean
Alan Bean
Alan LaVern Bean is a former NASA astronaut, engineer, and painter. Bean was selected to become an astronaut by NASA in 1963 as part of Astronaut Group 3. He made his first flight into space aboard Apollo 12, the second manned mission to land on the Moon, at the age of thirty-seven years in...
as Lunar Module Pilot. The launch was the most harrowing of the Apollo program, as a series of lightning strikes just after liftoff temporarily knocked out power and guidance in the command module. Five days later, after stepping onto the lunar surface, Conrad joked about his own small stature by remarking:
He later revealed that he said this in order to win a bet he had made with the Italian journalist Oriana Fallaci
Oriana Fallaci
Oriana Fallaci was an Italian journalist, author, and political interviewer. A former partisan during World War II, she had a long and successful journalistic career...
for $500 to prove that NASA did not script astronaut comments. (In actuality, Conrad's "long one" and Armstrong's "small step" refer to two different actions: going from the ladder down to the landing pad, then stepping horizontally off the pad onto the lunar surface. Conrad's words for stepping onto the Moon were "Oooh, is that soft and queasy.")
Skylab
Conrad's last mission was commander of Skylab 2Skylab 2
-Backup crew:-Support crew:*Robert L. Crippen*Richard H. Truly*Henry W. Hartsfield, Jr*William E. Thornton-Mission parameters:*Mass: 19,979 kg*Maximum Altitude: 440 km*Distance: 18,536,730.9 km...
, the first crew to board the space station. The station had been damaged on its unmanned launch, when its micrometeroid shield tore away, taking one of two main solar panels with it and jamming the other one so that it could not deploy. Conrad and his crew repaired the damage on two spacewalks. Conrad managed to pull free the stuck solar panel by sheer brute force, an action of which he was particularly proud. The astronauts also erected a "parasol" solar shield to protect the station from intense solar heating, a function which the lost micrometeroid shield was supposed to perform. Without the shield, the Skylab and its contents would have become unusable President Jimmy Carter
Jimmy Carter
James Earl "Jimmy" Carter, Jr. is an American politician who served as the 39th President of the United States and was the recipient of the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize, the only U.S. President to have received the Prize after leaving office...
honored Conrad for this in 1978 by awarding him the Congressional Space Medal of Honor
Congressional Space Medal of Honor
The Congressional Space Medal of Honor was authorized by the United States Congress in 1969 to recognize "any astronaut who in the performance of his duties has distinguished himself by exceptionally meritorious efforts and contributions to the welfare of the Nation and mankind." The highest award...
.
Post-NASA
Conrad retired from NASA and the Navy in 1973, and went to work for American Television and Communications Company. He worked for McDonnell DouglasMcDonnell Douglas
McDonnell Douglas was a major American aerospace manufacturer and defense contractor, producing a number of famous commercial and military aircraft. It formed from a merger of McDonnell Aircraft and Douglas Aircraft in 1967. McDonnell Douglas was based at Lambert-St. Louis International Airport...
from 1976 into the 1990s. After an engine fell off a McDonnell-Douglas DC-10 causing it to crash with the loss of all passengers and crew
American Airlines Flight 191
American Airlines Flight 191 was a regularly scheduled passenger flight in the United States from O'Hare International Airport in Chicago, Illinois, to Los Angeles International Airport. On May 25, 1979, the McDonnell Douglas DC-10-10 operating the route crashed moments after takeoff from Chicago....
in 1979, Conrad spearheaded McDonnell-Douglas’s ultimately unsuccessful efforts to allay the fears of the public and policymakers, and save the plane’s reputation.
During the 1990s he was the ground-based pilot for several test flights of the Delta Clipper
McDonnell Douglas DC-X
The DC-X, short for Delta Clipper or Delta Clipper Experimental, was an unmanned prototype of a reusable single stage to orbit launch vehicle built by McDonnell Douglas in conjunction with the United States Department of Defense's Strategic Defense Initiative Organization from 1991 to 1993...
experimental single stage to orbit launch vehicle.
On February 14, 1996, Conrad was part of the crew on a record-breaking around-the-world flight in a Learjet owned by cable TV pioneer, Bill Daniels
Bill Daniels
Robert W. "Bill" Daniels was a pioneer in the cable television industry, commonly known as the "Father of Cable Television". He was an owner of the Los Angeles Lakers and a founder of the United States Football League ....
. The flight lasted 49 hours, 26 minutes and 8 seconds. Today the jet is on permanent static display at Denver International Airport's Terminal C.
In 2006, NASA
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research...
posthumously awarded him the Ambassador of Exploration Award for his work for the agency and science.
Personal life
While at Princeton, Conrad met Jane DuBose, a student at Bryn MawrBryn Mawr College
Bryn Mawr College is a women's liberal arts college located in Bryn Mawr, a community in Lower Merion Township, Pennsylvania, ten miles west of Philadelphia. The name "Bryn Mawr" means "big hill" in Welsh....
, whose family owned a 1600 acres (6.5 km²) ranch near Uvalde, Texas
Uvalde, Texas
Uvalde is a city in and the county seat of Uvalde County, Texas, United States. The population was 14,929 at the 2000 census.Uvalde was founded by Reading Wood Black in 1853 as the town of Encina. In 1856, when the county was organized, the town was renamed Uvalde for Spanish governor Juan de...
. Her father, Winn DuBose, was the first person to call Conrad “Pete” rather than “Peter,” the name he had used since birth. Upon his graduation from Princeton and acceptance of his Navy commission, Conrad and Jane were married on June 16, 1953. They had four children, all boys: Peter, born in 1954, Thomas, Andrew, and his youngest, Christopher, born in 1961.
Given the demands of his career in the Navy and NASA, Pete and Jane spent a great deal of time apart, and Pete saw less of his boys growing up than he would have liked. Even after he retired from NASA and the Navy, he kept himself busy. Soon, Jane had established a separate life for herself. In 1988, with their sons all grown and moved out, Pete and Jane divorced. Some years later, Jane remarried.
In 1989, Conrad’s youngest son, Christopher, was stricken with a malignant lymphoma
Lymphoma
Lymphoma is a cancer in the lymphatic cells of the immune system. Typically, lymphomas present as a solid tumor of lymphoid cells. Treatment might involve chemotherapy and in some cases radiotherapy and/or bone marrow transplantation, and can be curable depending on the histology, type, and stage...
. He died in April 1990, at the age of 28.
Conrad met Nancy Marjorie Crane, a Denver divorcee, through mutual friends. After a time, their friendship blossomed. Pete Conrad and Nancy Marjorie Crane were married in San Francisco in the spring of 1990.
Death
On July 8, 1999, less than three weeks before the celebrations of the 30th anniversary of the first moon landing, while motorcycling in Ojai, CaliforniaOjai, California
Ojai is a city in Ventura County, California, USA. It is situated in the Ojai Valley , surrounded by hills and mountains. The population was 7,461 at the 2010 census, down from 7,862 at the 2000 census.-History:Chumash Indians were the early inhabitants of the valley...
, with friends, he ran off the road and crashed. His injuries were first thought to be minor, but he died from internal bleeding
Internal bleeding
Internal bleeding is bleeding occurring inside the body. It can be a serious medical emergency depending on where it occurs , and can potentially cause death and cardiac arrest if proper medical treatment is not received quickly....
about six hours later. He was buried with full honors at Arlington National Cemetery
Arlington National Cemetery
Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington County, Virginia, is a military cemetery in the United States of America, established during the American Civil War on the grounds of Arlington House, formerly the estate of the family of Confederate general Robert E. Lee's wife Mary Anna Lee, a great...
, with many Apollo-era astronauts in attendance.
Popular culture
Conrad is a central figure in the book The Right StuffThe Right Stuff (book)
The Right Stuff is a 1979 book by Tom Wolfe about the pilots engaged in U.S. postwar experiments with experimental rocket-powered, high-speed aircraft as well as documenting the stories of the first Project Mercury astronauts selected for the NASA space program...
by Tom Wolfe
Tom Wolfe
Thomas Kennerly "Tom" Wolfe, Jr. is a best-selling American author and journalist. He is one of the founders of the New Journalism movement of the 1960s and 1970s.-Early life and education:...
. Much of the book's insight into the attitudes and behavior of both the astronauts and their wives before and during the astronaut selection process are presented through the eyes of Conrad and his wife. In the movie, much of this was shifted to Alan Shepard
Alan Shepard
Alan Bartlett Shepard, Jr. was an American naval aviator, test pilot, flag officer, and NASA astronaut who in 1961 became the second person, and the first American, in space. This Mercury flight was designed to enter space, but not to achieve orbit...
and the other Mercury astronauts.
In television and film
Conrad played himself in the 1991 television movie Plymouth, about a fictional lunar base; and in the 1975 made-for-TV movie, Stowaway to the Moon.In the 1995 film Apollo 13
Apollo 13 (film)
Apollo 13 is a 1995 American drama film directed by Ron Howard. The film stars Tom Hanks, Kevin Bacon, Bill Paxton, Gary Sinise, Kathleen Quinlan and Ed Harris. The screenplay by William Broyles, Jr...
, Conrad was played by David Andrews
David Andrews (actor)
David Andrews is an American actor, best known for his role as General Robert Brewster in Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines.Andrews was born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana...
. In the 1998 HBO miniseries From the Earth to the Moon, he was played by Peter Scolari
Peter Scolari
Peter Scolari is an American television, film and stage actor best known for his roles in the television shows Newhart, Honey, I Shrunk the Kids: The TV Show, and Bosom Buddies.-Career:...
(in episode 1, "Can We Do This?") and by Paul McCrane
Paul McCrane
Paul David McCrane is an American film, television and theatre actor, as well as an occasional television director. He is perhaps best known for his portrayal of Montgomery MacNeil in the 1980 film Fame and Dr. Robert Romano on the NBC medical drama television series ER.-Early life:McCrane was...
(in episode 7, "That's All There Is").
Quotes
If you can’t be good, be colorful.—Conrad's personal motto.A month before he died, Conrad appeared on ABC News Nightline and said, I think the Space Shuttle
Space Shuttle
The Space Shuttle was a manned orbital rocket and spacecraft system operated by NASA on 135 missions from 1981 to 2011. The system combined rocket launch, orbital spacecraft, and re-entry spaceplane with modular add-ons...
is worth one billion dollars a launch. I think that it is worth two billion dollars for what it does. I think the Shuttle is worth it for the work it does.
If you don't know what to do, don't do anything.—Conrad's advice for working in space, quoted in the book From the Earth to the Moon.
Tribute
The Johnson Space Center facility in Houston, TexasTexas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
, includes a grove of trees planted to honor the memory of astronauts who have died. After Conrad’s death, NASA
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research...
planted a tree in his honor. During the dedication ceremony, Apollo 12
Apollo 12
Apollo 12 was the sixth manned flight in the American Apollo program and the second to land on the Moon . It was launched on November 14, 1969 from the Kennedy Space Center, Florida, four months after Apollo 11. Mission commander Charles "Pete" Conrad and Lunar Module Pilot Alan L...
crewmate Alan Bean
Alan Bean
Alan LaVern Bean is a former NASA astronaut, engineer, and painter. Bean was selected to become an astronaut by NASA in 1963 as part of Astronaut Group 3. He made his first flight into space aboard Apollo 12, the second manned mission to land on the Moon, at the age of thirty-seven years in...
, during his speech, irreverently “channeled” Conrad, who purportedly sent instructions from the great beyond. According to Bean, Conrad’s instructions were that NASA light the trees every Christmas season with white lights—but that in keeping with his motto, his tree was to have colored lights. NASA has honored this “request,” and every Christmas since, all the trees in the grove are lit with white lights—except his tree, which is lit with red lights.
Pete Conrad Spirit Award
On September 8, 2008, The Conrad Foundation announced the launch of their 2008 Pete Conrad Spirit of Innovation Awards. Teams of high school students across the nation are invited to compete in this innovative program. The competition is engages high school students in creating commercial products using science and technology.Students design products in personal space flight, lunar exploration and renewable energy. NASA’s call for a human return to the moon and the increased interest in space transportation are the foundation of this year’s Conrad Award aerospace challenges. In addition, students will answer Al Gore’s energy challenge to America, by using renewable energy to change everyday life.
“This generation like every other generation, has the ability to design its future. Our award provides the resources for them to do so,” said Nancy Conrad, wife of the late Pete Conrad and founder of the Conrad Foundation.
Students create unique products, produce viable business plans, and are given opportunities to bring their ideas to market. This competition provides students with the ability to network with scientists, university professors, world business leaders, venture capitalists and entrepreneurs. “Winning is just the beginning,” said Nancy Conrad. “This competition is the pipeline from education to industry. We have not only created a program, we’re driving a movement.”
In May 2007 the X PRIZE Foundation
X Prize Foundation
The X PRIZE Foundation is a non-profit organization that designs and manages public competitions intended to encourage technological development that could benefit mankind....
announced the creation of the Pete Conrad Spirit of Innovation Award, to be presented to "the high school team that develops the most creative, new space concept to benefit the emerging personal spaceflight industry." The first award was presented at the 2007 Wirefly X PRIZE Cup at the Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico, it was presented to two students from Milken Community High School
Milken Community High School
Milken Community High School, colloquially Milken, is a private Jewish High School. It is located on Mulholland Drive in the Bel-Air area of Los Angeles, California.Though long affiliated with Stephen S...
.