Portrait of Pete Conrad
NASA
Pete Conrad
Charles "Pete" Conrad was an American astronaut who was born on June 2,
1930, in Pennsylvania.
Before he became an astronaut, Conrad served as a Naval test pilot.
Conrad became an astronaut in 1962. He has spent over 1180 hours in
space on 4 spaceflights. He is known for having one of the most
incredible careers of any astronaut.
In 1965, Conrad piloted Gemini 5. He and his partner, Gordon Cooper, set
an endurance record of 191 hours on this mission. Conrad made his second
spaceflight aboard Gemini 11 in 1966. This mission made an altitude
record of 850 miles.
Conrad became the third person to walk on the moon in 1969. He commanded
the Apollo 12 mission of which he collected moon samples. When Conrad
stepped onto the lunar surface, the short man said, "Whoopie! That may
have been one small [step] for Neil, but it's a long one for me!"
Conrad made his last spaceflight in 1973 on Skylab 2. This was the first
manned visit to the space station. Conrad and his crew set another
endurance record of 28 days during this mission.
Conrad left NASA in 1973 to become vice-president of the McDonnel Douglas
Aerospace Corporation. He died in 1999 from injuries obtained in a motorcyle accident. The 69 year old former astronaut is survived by his wife, Nancy, three sons and seven grandchildren.
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