“Aboard the craft were Commander Charles ‘Pete’ Conrad; command module pilot Richard F. Gordon Jr. and lunar module pilot Alan Bean.”
Of the three Apollo 12 astronauts, Mr Gordon was the only one who did not descend to the lunar surface.
He played the same role Mr Collins did on Apollo 11, staying behind in the mission’s Command Module Yankee Clipper.
Apollo 12 landed on the Moon on November 19, marking the first time a manned spacecraft landed next to another spacecraft.
The mission targeted a landing spot next to the Surveyor 3 – a probe NASA launched to the Moon in 1967.
