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
Apollo 11 in popular culture an astronaut and achieve his dream to meet the alien race called the Presenters. In the "Apollo 13" film based off the real mission, Jim Lovell, Jack Swigert, Fred Haise, Ken Mattingly, Pete Conrad, Marilyn Lovell gather in the Lovell household to watch the moonwalk as Neil Armstrong stepped off onto the surface of the Moon; also, later in the movie, as the crew is about to enter the night side of the Moon, Haise points out that they're passing over the Mare Tranquillitatis and he refers to it as "Neil and Buzz's old neighborhood" and shoots some footage of