The Gemini 12 astronauts James Lovell and Edwin Aldrin lifted off aboard a Titan launch vehicle from the Kennedy Space Center on November 11, 1966, an hour and a half after their Agena target vehicle was orbited by an Atlas rocket. Launched atop an Atlas booster, the Agena target vehicle (ATV) was a spacecraft used by NASA to develop and practice orbital space rendezvous and docking techniques in preparation for the Apollo program lunar missions. The objective was for Agena and Gemini to rendezvous in space and practice docking procedures. An intermediate step between Project Mercury and the Apollo Program, the Gemini Program's major objectives were to subject two men and supporting equipment to long duration flights, to perfect rendezvous and docking with other orbiting vehicles, methods of reentry, and landing of the spacecraft. n/a

The Space Race began with a shock to the American public when the Soviet satellite Sputnik was launched in 1957. United states created NASA accelerate U.S. space exploration efforts and launched the Explorer 1 satellite in 1958. The Soviet Union was first again when it puts the first human, cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, into a single orbit on April 12, 1961. Shortly after this, on May 5, the U.S. launched Alan Shepard, on a suborbital flight and reached its orbital goal on February 20, 1962, when John Glenn made three orbits around the Earth in the Mercury capsule. The Mercury space capsule was a pressurized cabin produced by McDonnell Aircraft and carried supplies of water, food, and oxygen for about one day. Mercury was launched on a top of modified Atlas D ballistic missiles. The capsule was fitted with a launch escape rocket to carry it safely away from the launch vehicle in case of a failure. Small retrorockets were used to bring the spacecraft out of its orbit, after which an ablative heat shield protected it from the heat of atmospheric reentry. Finally, a parachute slowed the craft for a water landing. Both astronaut and capsule were recovered by helicopters deployed from a U.S. Navy ship. The Mercury project missions were followed by millions on radio and TV around the world. Its success laid the groundwork for Project Gemini, which carried two astronauts in each capsule and perfected space docking maneuvers essential for manned lunar landings in the Apollo program announced just a few weeks after the first manned Mercury launch.

Apollo 12 launched from Cape Kennedy on Nov. 14, 1969, into a cloudy, rain-swept sky. The flight plan for Apollo 12 was similar to that of Apollo 11, except Apollo 12 was to fly a higher inclination to the lunar equator and leave the free-return trajectory after the second translunar midcourse correction. Prior to lunar orbit insertion, a telecast was made to Earth on Nov. 17, showing the Earth, moon, spacecraft interior and intravehicular transfer of the crew. Later that day, when Apollo 12 went behind the moon at about 97 miles up, the first lunar orbit insertion burn began. The burn lasted for about six minutes, placing the spacecraft into an elliptical orbit of 69 by 195 miles. On Nov. 19, with the LM behind the moon in the 14th orbit, and some 109 hours, 23 minutes into the mission, the descent orbit insertion maneuver began. With Conrad controlling the descent semi-manually for the last 500 feet, a precision landing occurred at about 110 hours, 32 minutes into the mission, and closer to the target than expected. Intrepid landed in the Ocean of Storms at 3 degrees, 11 hours, 51 minutes south, and 23 degrees, 23 minutes, and 7.5 seconds west. Landing was about 120 feet northeast of Head Crater, and about 535 feet northwest from where Surveyor III stood in its crater. Apollo 12 touched down approximately 950 miles west of where Apollo 11 had landed. Three hours after the landing and before the first extravehicular activity or, EVA, began. Richard Gordon, orbiting 69 miles up in the Yankee Clipper, was able to see both the Intrepid and Surveyor through the use of a 28-power sextant telescope. Conrad opened Intrepid's hatch at 115 hours, 10 minutes into the mission to begin the first lunar EVA for the Apollo 12 crew. In their first lunar exploration, Conrad spent three hours, 39 minutes outside Intrepid, and Bean logged two hours, 58 minutes on the lurain. Crew Charles Conrad Jr., Commander Alan L. Bean, Lunar Module Pilot Richard F. Gordon Jr., Command Module Pilot