Everyone remembers Neil Armstrong. People usually remember Buzz Aldrin, too—partly because of the catchy name and partly because he’s been so vocal about space exploration for decades. But then things get a little fuzzy for the average person. If you ask a random person on the street who was the third person to walk on the moon, you’ll probably get a blank stare or maybe a guess like "Jim Lovell?" (Great guy, but he never actually touched the lunar dust).
The real answer is Charles "Pete" Conrad Jr.
He stepped off the Lunar Module Intrepid on November 19, 1969. It was only four months after Apollo 11. Because the world had already seen "the big one," the Apollo 12 mission often gets overshadowed. That's a shame. Conrad wasn't just a placeholder in history; he was a naval aviator with a personality that basically vibrated off the screen. He was shorter than your average astronaut, had a gap between his front teeth, and possessed a sense of humor that made the buttoned-up world of NASA feel a bit more human.
When he finally hit the lunar surface, he didn't go for the "giant leap" gravitas. He joked. "Whoopee!" he yelled. "Man, that may have been a small one for Neil, but that's a long one for me."
He was poking fun at his own height. It was classic Conrad.
The Mission Most People Forget
Apollo 12 wasn't just a "me too" mission. It was arguably one of the most difficult technical feats of the entire program. While Armstrong and Aldrin just needed to land safely anywhere in the Sea of Tranquility, Conrad and his Lunar Module Pilot, Alan Bean, had a much tougher job. They had to perform a "pinpoint landing."
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They were aiming for a specific spot in the Ocean of Storms. Why? Because NASA wanted them to find a robotic probe called Surveyor 3 that had landed there two years earlier.
Think about the math involved. You're hurtling through space, descending toward a cratered, grey landscape with no GPS, and you have to park within walking distance of a piece of junk the size of a golf cart. Conrad nailed it. He landed so close—about 535 feet away—that they could actually hike over to the probe and cut pieces off it to bring back to Earth.
Honestly, the mission started as a disaster.
Twelve seconds after liftoff, the Saturn V rocket was struck by lightning. Not once, but twice. The command center went dark. The telemetry was a mess of "garbage" data. Most pilots would have aborted. But thanks to a quick-thinking engineer named John Aaron (who famously suggested "Try SCE to Aux") and the nerves of the crew, they pushed through. Conrad just sat there and laughed while the alarms were screaming.
Why Pete Conrad Was Different
If you read the biographies of the "First Nine" or the Apollo era guys, you see a lot of "Ice Pilots." Men who were stoic, serious, and deeply aware of their image. Conrad was a different breed. He was a Princeton grad who struggled with dyslexia before people really knew what that was. He was a "pilot's pilot" who had been rejected from the first group of Mercury astronauts because he thought the personality tests were stupid.
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During one psychiatric exam, they showed him a blank Rorschach card. He looked at it and told them it was upside down. That kind of attitude didn't sit well with the 1950s NASA brass, but by the time Apollo rolled around, his flying skills were undeniable.
The Lunar Surface Experience
Conrad and Bean spent nearly eight hours total walking on the moon. This wasn't a quick "plant the flag and leave" situation. They were doing real science. They set up the ALSEP (Apollo Lunar Surface Experiments Package), which included seismometers to detect "moonquakes."
They also had a bit of a rough time with the tech.
One of the big goals of Apollo 12 was to bring back the first high-quality color television footage from the lunar surface. But while Alan Bean was setting up the camera, he accidentally pointed it directly at the sun. The sensor burned out instantly. The screen went black. For the rest of the mission, the world back home only had audio. This is probably why who was the third person to walk on the moon is a trivia question today instead of a household name. Without the video, the public lost interest.
But if you listen to the transcripts, you hear two best friends having the time of their lives. They hummed. They joked. They fell over in the low gravity and laughed about it.
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Beyond the Moon: Conrad’s Legacy
Conrad didn't stop at the moon. He went on to command the first mission to Skylab, America's first space station. That mission was even more "cowboy" than Apollo 12. Skylab had been damaged during launch; a heat shield had ripped off, and a solar wing was jammed. The station was baking in the sun.
Conrad and his crew basically performed orbital surgery. They went on spacewalks with bolt cutters and makeshift sunshades. They saved the station. It remains one of the greatest "MacGyver" moments in the history of technology.
What We Can Learn From the Third Man
Pete Conrad passed away in 1999 following a motorcycle accident. He wasn't a man who wanted a somber, grey funeral. He wanted a celebration. Even in his later years, he was pushing for commercial spaceflight, believing that the moon shouldn't just be for government employees, but for everyone.
When we look back at the Apollo program, we tend to get lost in the "Great Man" theory of history. We focus on the firsts. But the "seconds" and "thirds" are where the program matured. Apollo 12 proved that we could control where we landed. It proved that humans could work, not just survive, in another world.
Actionable Insights for History Buffs and Space Fans
If you're looking to dive deeper into the life of the man who was the third person to walk on the moon, don't just stick to the Wikipedia page. The nuance is in the primary sources.
- Read "Rocketman": This biography, written by his wife Nancy Conrad and Howard Klausner, captures his actual voice. It’s not a dry technical manual. It’s a riot.
- Listen to the Apollo 12 Transcripts: Go to the NASA archives. Listening to Conrad and Bean giggle while they struggle with a plutonium fuel element for their power generator is a reminder that space travel is done by real people.
- Study the Surveyor 3 Photos: Look at the images of Conrad standing next to the old probe. It’s a haunting, beautiful look at human artifacts resting in the silence of another world.
- Visit the Spaceport: If you’re ever in Florida, the Apollo 12 Command Module, Yankee Clipper, is at the Virginia Air and Space Science Center. Seeing the actual charred metal that Pete Conrad sat in while being hit by lightning is a visceral experience.
Understanding who Pete Conrad was helps humanize the Apollo program. He wasn't a statue. He wasn't a script. He was a guy who loved to fly and happened to be the third person to leave footprints in the lunar dust. Next time someone brings up Neil Armstrong, remember the guy who followed him with a "Whoopee!" and a grin. It makes the moon feel a lot closer.