Pete Conrad the prime crew on the third following mission. If the swap of 8 and 9 had not occurred, Conrad might have commanded Apollo 11, the first mission to land on the Moon. On November 14, 1969, Apollo 12 was 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
Yuri Gagarin during the period of the Soviet Union. The Air Force Academy was renamed Gagarin Air Force Academy in 1968. There is street in Warsaw called Yuri Gagarin Street. Gagarin has been honored on the Moon by both astronauts and astronomers. He was honored by the American space program during Apollo 11 in 1969 when astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin left a memorial satchel containing medals commemorating Gagarin and fellow cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov on the surface. In 1971, Apollo 15 astronauts David Scott and James Irwin left the "Fallen Astronaut" at their landing site as a memorial to all the