The Apollo 12 mission launches from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, carrying astronauts Charles Conrad, Alan Bean and Richard Gordon. The primary mission objectives included an extensive series of lunar exploration tasks by the lunar module as well as deployment of the Apollo Lunar Surface Experiments Package, which was left on the Moon’s surface to gather seismic, scientific and engineering data over an extended period of time. Apollo 12 was the second crewed lunar landing of the Apollo Program. The mission concluded when the Apollo 12 crew successfully splashed down in the Pacific Ocean on Nov. 24, 1969. Now through December 2022, NASA is marking the 50th anniversary of the Apollo Program that landed a dozen astronauts on the Moon between July 1969 and December 1972. The NASA History Program is responsible for generating, disseminating and preserving NASA’s remarkable history and providing a comprehensive understanding of the institutional, cultural, social, political, economic, technological and scientific aspects of NASA’s activities in aeronautics and space. For more pictures like this one and to connect to NASA’s history, visit the Marshall History Program’s webpage. (NASA)