NASA
It was 55 years ago today that Apollo 12 astronaut Pete Conrad stepped off the ladder of the Intrepid Lunar Module and set foot onto the Moon's surface at Oceanus Procellarum. To mark the occasion, Conrad immediately exclaimed “Whoopee!" This was followed by him commenting, "Man, that may have been a small one for Neil, but that’s a long one for me."
Pete Conrad was one of the shortest astronauts during the early days of America's space program...at a height of 5'6". (Neil Armstrong was 5'11".) Conrad was only one inch taller than me—which would give me hope to become an astronaut if not for a few health issues and the fact that I hated math back in high school and college!
Pete Conrad and his fellow moonwalker Alan Bean spent a total of 7 hours and 45 minutes on the Moon's surface during Apollo 12, with Dick Gordon remaining in lunar orbit aboard the Yankee Clipper Command Module on this mission. Apollo 12 concluded with a successful splashdown in the Pacific Ocean on November 24, 1969.
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