The three astronauts named by NASA as the prime crew of the Apollo 12 lunar-landing mission, photographed in September 1969. From left to right: Charles Conrad Jr., Richard F. Gordon Jr., and Alan L. Bean. #

The Apollo 12 lunar extravehicular activity (EVA) crew members Charles Conrad Jr. and Al Bean conduct a simulation of the lunar-surface activity planned for their lunar-landing mission at a training session held in the Flight Crew Training Building at the Kennedy Space Center. #

The three crewmen of the Apollo 12 lunar-landing mission are briefed aboard the NASA Motor Vessel Retriever in preparation for water egress training in the Gulf of Mexico. Front, from left to right, are astronauts Richard F. Gordon Jr., command-module pilot; Charles Conrad Jr., commander; and Alan L. Bean, lunar-module pilot. Two training personnel stand in the background. #

Lunar Module 6, scheduled for the Apollo 12 lunar-landing mission, is moved to an integration work stand in the Kennedy Space Center's Manned Spacecraft Operations Building on June 23, 1969. #

A high-angle view at Launch Complex 39, at the Kennedy Space Center, showing the Apollo 12 Saturn 507 space vehicle leaving the Vehicle Assembly Building on the way to Pad A on September 8, 1969 #

Personnel at their stations in Firing Room 2 of the Launch Control Center monitor prelaunch activities prior to the liftoff of Apollo 12, in Florida's Kennedy Space Center. #

During the launch of the Apollo 12 spaceflight, Judy Agnew, (left) wife of Vice President Spiro Agnew, talks with astronaut wives Sue Bean (center) and Valerie Anders (right) in Houston, Texas, on November 14, 1969. #

Thomas Paine, the NASA administrator, shields the first lady, Pat Nixon, from rain while President Richard Nixon and daughter Tricia (foreground) watch Apollo 12 prelaunch activities at the Kennedy Space Center viewing area. Following the successful liftoff, the president congratulated the launch crew from within the control center. #

The 363-foot-tall Apollo 12 Saturn V space vehicle launches from Pad A, Launch Complex 39, at 11:22 a.m. eastern time, on November 14, 1969. Aboard the spacecraft were the astronauts Charles Conrad Jr., commander; Richard F. Gordon Jr., command-module pilot, and Alan L. Bean, lunar-module pilot. #

The Apollo 12 lunar module, still attached to the Saturn V third stage, is pictured as seen from the Apollo 12 command and service modules on the first day of the Apollo 12 lunar-landing mission. This photograph was taken following CSM separation from LM/S-IVB and prior to lunar module extraction from the S-IVB stage. #

The Apollo 12 lunar module, in a lunar-landing configuration, is photographed in lunar orbit from the command and service modules. The largest crater in the foreground is Ptolemaeus. Aboard the lunar module were the astronauts Charles Conrad Jr., commander, and Alan L. Bean, lunar-module pilot. #

Astronaut Alan L. Bean holds a special environmental-sample container filled with lunar soil collected during an EVA. Charles Conrad Jr., who took this picture, is reflected in Bean's helmet visor. #

An overall view of activity in the Mission Operations Control Room in the Mission Control Center, Building 30, during the Apollo 12 lunar-landing mission on November 19, 1969. When this picture was made, the first Apollo 12 EVA was being televised from the surface of the moon. #

A composite panorama shows the astronaut Alan Bean at work om the Modular Equipment Stowage Assembly (MESA) on the Apollo 12 lunar module during the mission's first extravehicular activity, on November 19, 1969. #

This unusual view shows two NASA spacecraft on the surface of the moon. In the center foreground is the unmanned Surveyor 3 spacecraft, which soft-landed on the lunar surface on April 19, 1967. Just 600 feet away from Surveyor 3, pictured here in the background, is the Apollo 12 lunar module, which landed on the lunar surface on November 19, 1969. This photograph was taken the following day, during the second Apollo 12 EVA. #

Astronauts removed the television camera and several other pieces from Surveyor 3 and brought them back to Earth for scientific examination. Here, Conrad examines the Surveyor's TV camera prior to detaching it. #

A very thin, crescent Earth, seen from the Apollo 12 command and service modules, as NASA's second lunar-landing crew returned home from the moon in November 1969. The brightness in the corner of the photograph is a lens flare caused by sunlight reflecting on the window and the lens of the handheld Hasselblad camera. #

Astronaut Alan L. Bean exits the Apollo 12 command module, helped by a U.S. Navy underwater-demolition-team swimmer, during recovery operations in the Pacific Ocean. #

Members of the Apollo 12 lunar-landing mission's crew talk with their families from inside the Mobile Quarantine Facility soon after their arrival at Ellington Air Force Base aboard a United States Air Force C-141 transport jet in the early-morning hours of November 29, 1969. #