Science & Tech
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During Apollo 12, command module pilot Richard Gordon assured lunar module commander Pete Conrad that the landing was right on target. Despite a rocky start caused by pre-launch lightning strikes and swirling lunar dust that obscured the surface, the mission became the first Moon flight to achieve a pinpoint landing, touching down within 600 feet of the Surveyor III probe, which had reached the Moon 31 months earlier. This allowed astronauts to return parts of the probe to Earth for study of the long-term effects of exposure to the lunar environment, and it showed that landing in rugged terrain, important for future scientific missions, was possible. The astronauts explored the Moon for seven hours and 45 minutes, showing that humans were capable of much more lunar activity than first thought. Although television broadcasts ended when Alan Bean inadvertently pointed the camera at the sun, the mission returned a wealth of lunar surface photographs along with rocks, soil, and pieces of Surveyor.
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