Pete Conrad Charles " Pete " Conrad , Jr . ( June 2 , 1930 – July 8 , 1999 ) was a U . S . Navy officer and NASA astronaut , and during the Apollo 12 mission became the third man to walk on the Moon . He set an eight - day space endurance record along with his command pilot Gordon Cooper on the Gemini 5 mission , and commanded the Gemini 11 mission . After Apollo , he commanded the Skylab 2 mission ( the first manned one ) , on which he and his crewmates repaired significant launch damage to the Skylab space station . For this , President Jimmy Carter awarded him the Congressional Space Medal of Honor in 1978 . Early life and schooling . Pete Conrad was born on June 2 , 1930 , in Philadelphia , the third child and the first son of Charles Conrad , Sr . , and Frances De Rappelage Vinson Conrad , a well - to - do real estate and banking family . His mother wanted very much to name her newborn son " Peter " , but Charles insisted that his first son bear his name . In a compromise between two strong - willed people , the name on his birth certificate read " Charles Conrad , Jr . " , but to his mother and virtually all who knew him , he was " Peter " . When he was 21 , his fiancee ' s father called him " Pete " and thereafter , Conrad adopted it . For the rest of his life , to virtually everyone , he was " Pete " . The Great Depression wiped out the Conrad family ' s fortune , just as it had those of so many others . In 1942 , the family lost their manor home in Philadelphia , and then moved into a small carriage house , paid for by Frances ' s brother , Egerton Vinson . Eventually , Charles , Sr . , broken down by financial failures , left his family . From the beginning , Pete Conrad was clearly a bright , intelligent boy , but he continually struggled with his schoolwork . He suffered from dyslexia , a condition which was little understood at the time . Conrad attended The Haverford School , a private academy in Haverford , Pennsylvania , that previous generations of Conrads had attended . Even after his family ' s financial downturn , his uncle Egerton supported his continued schooling at Haverford . However , Pete ' s dyslexia continued to frustrate his academic efforts . After he failed most of his 11th grade exams , Haverford expelled him from school . Conrad ' s mother refused to believe that her son was unintelligent , and she set about finding him a suitable school . She found the Darrow School in New Lebanon , New York . There , Conrad learned how to apply a " systems " approach to learning , and thus found a way to work around his dyslexia . Despite having to repeat the 11th grade , Conrad so excelled at Darrow that after his graduation in 1949 , he not only was admitted to Princeton University , but he was also awarded a full Navy ROTC scholarship . Starting when he was 15 years old , Conrad worked during the summertime at the Paoli Airfield near Paoli , Pennsylvania , bartering lawn mowing , sweeping , and other odd jobs for airplane flights and occasional instructional time . He learned more about the mechanics and workings of aircraft and aircraft engines , and then he graduated to minor maintenance work . When he was 16 , he drove almost to help a flight instructor whose airplane had been forced to make an emergency landing . Conrad repaired the plane single - handedly . Thereafter , the instructor gave Conrad the flight lessons that he needed to earn his pilot ' s license even before he graduated from high school . Conrad continued flying while he was in college , not only keeping his pilot ' s license , but also earning an instrument flight rating . He earned his B . S . in aeronautical engineering from Princeton in 1953 , and his automatic commission as an ensign in the Navy as a Naval ROTC graduate . Aviation career in the U . S . Navy . Conrad became a naval aviator and a fighter pilot . He excelled in Navy flight school , and he served for several years as an aircraft carrier pilot in the Navy . Conrad also served as a flight instructor in the Navy flight schools along the Gulf of Mexico . Next , Conrad applied for and he was accepted by the U . S . Naval Test Pilot School at Naval Air Station Patuxent River , Patuxent , Maryland , where he was assigned as a Project Test Pilot . During this period , Conrad was invited to take part in the selection process for the first group of astronauts for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration ( NASA ) ( the " Mercury Seven " ) . Conrad , like his fellow candidates , underwent several days of what they considered to be invasive , demeaning , and unnecessary medical and psychological testing at the Lovelace Respiratory Research Institute in New Mexico . Unlike his fellow candidates , Conrad rebelled against the regimen . During a Rorschach inkblot test , he told the psychiatrist that one blot card revealed a sexual encounter complete with lurid detail . When shown a blank card , he turned it around , pushed it back and replied " It ' s upside down " . Then when he was asked to deliver a stool sample to the onsite lab , he placed it in a gift box and tied a red ribbon around it . Eventually , he decided that he had had enough . After dropping his full enema bag on the desk of the clinic ’ s commanding officer , he walked out . His initial application to NASA was denied with the notation " not suitable for long - duration flight . " Thereafter , when NASA announced its search for a second group of astronauts , Mercury veteran Alan Shepard , who knew Conrad from their time as naval aviator s and test pilots , approached Conrad and persuaded him to reapply . This time , the medical tests were less offensive , and Conrad was selected to join NASA . NASA career . Gemini . Conrad joined NASA as part of the second group of astronauts , known as the New Nine , on September 17 , 1962 . Regarded as one of the best pilots in the group , he was among the first of his group to be assigned a Gemini mission . As pilot of Gemini 5 he , along with his commander Gordon Cooper , set a new space endurance record of eight days . The duration of the Gemini 5 flight was actually 7 days 22 hours and 55 minutes , surpassing the then - current Russia n record of five days . Eight days was the time required for the first manned lunar landing missions . Conrad facetiously referred to the Gemini 5 capsule as " a flying garbage can " . Conrad tested many spacecraft systems essential to the Apollo program . Conrad was also one of the smallest of the astronauts in height , 1 . 69 metres or 5 feet 6½ inches , so he found the confinement of the Gemini capsule less onerous than his commander Gordon Cooper , who played American football , did . He was then named commander of the Gemini 8 back - up crew , and later commander of Gemini 11 , which docked with an Agena target vehicle immediately after achieving orbit . Such a maneuver was an engineering and flight test because it was very similar to what the Apollo Command Module ( CM ) and what was referred to at that time as the Lunar Excursion Module ( LEM ) would later be required to do . Later , NASA would change the name of the Lunar Excursion Module to simply Lunar Module or LM , because NASA leadership wanted to acquire funding to engineer a battery powered cart that would eventually be referred to as the " Lunar Rover " . Apollo . In the aftermath of the January 1967 Apollo 1 disaster , NASA ’ s plan to incrementally test Saturn V and Apollo spacecraft components leading to the lunar landing had to be significantly revised in order to meet John F . Kennedy ’ s goal of reaching the Moon by the end of the decade . Initially , Conrad was assigned to command the back - up crew for the first flight of the Saturn V and complete Apollo spacecraft , including the Lunar Module ( LM ) into low Earth orbit , which was initially scheduled as Apollo 8 . But when the LM wasn ' t ready in time , a lunar orbit mission without the LM was approved and inserted into the schedule as Apollo 8 , and the mission backed up by Conrad subsequently became Apollo 9 . Deke Slayton ’ s practice in assigning crews was to assign a back - up crew as prime crew for the third mission after that crew ’ s back - up mission . Without the 8 - 9 swap , Conrad might have commanded Apollo 11 , which became the first mission to land on the Moon . On November 14 , 1969 , Apollo 12 launched with Conrad as commander , Dick Gordon as Command Module Pilot and Alan Bean as Lunar Module Pilot . The launch was the most harrowing of the Apollo program , as a series of lightning strikes just after liftoff temporarily knocked out power and guidance in the command module . Five days later , after stepping onto the lunar surface , Conrad joked about his own small stature by remarking : He later revealed that he said this in order to win a bet he had made with the Italian journalist Oriana Fallaci for $ 500 to prove that NASA did not script astronaut comments . ( In actuality , Conrad ' s " long one " and Armstrong ' s " small step " refer to two different actions : going from the ladder down to the landing pad , then stepping horizontally off the pad onto the lunar surface . Conrad ' s words for stepping onto the Moon were " Oooh , is that soft and queasy . " ) Skylab . Conrad ' s last mission was as commander of Skylab 2 , the first crew to board the Skylab space station . The station had been damaged on its unmanned launch , when its micrometeoroid shield tore away , taking one of two main solar panels with it and jamming the other one so that it could not deploy . Conrad and his crew repaired the damage on two spacewalks . Conrad managed to pull free the stuck solar panel by sheer brute force , an action of which he was particularly proud . The astronauts also erected a " parasol " solar shield to protect the station from intense solar heating , a function which the lost micrometeoroid shield was supposed to perform . Without the shield , Skylab and its contents would have become unusable . President Jimmy Carter honored Conrad for this in 1978 by awarding him the Congressional Space Medal of Honor . Post - NASA . Conrad retired from NASA and the Navy in 1973 , and went to work for American Television and Communications Company . He worked for McDonnell Douglas from 1976 into the 1990s . After an engine fell off a McDonnell Douglas DC - 10 causing it to crash with the loss of all passengers and crew in 1979 , Conrad spearheaded McDonnell Douglas ’ s ultimately unsuccessful efforts to allay the fears of the public and policymakers , and save the plane ’ s reputation . During the 1990s he was the ground - based pilot for several test flights of the Delta Clipper experimental single stage to orbit launch vehicle . On February 14 , 1996 , Conrad was part of the crew on a record - breaking around - the - world flight in a Learjet owned by cable TV pioneer , Bill Daniels . The flight lasted 49 hours , 26 minutes and 8 seconds . Today the jet is on permanent static display at Denver International Airport ' s Terminal C . In 2006 , NASA posthumously awarded him the Ambassador of Exploration Award for his work for the agency and science . Personal life . While at Princeton , Conrad met Jane DuBose , a student at Bryn Mawr , whose family owned a ranch near Uvalde , Texas . Her father , Winn DuBose , was the first person to call Conrad “ Pete ” rather than “ Peter , ” the name he had used since birth . Upon his graduation from Princeton and acceptance of his Navy commission , Conrad and Jane were married on June 16 , 1953 . They had four children , all sons : Peter , born in 1954 , Thomas , Andrew , and the youngest , Christopher , born in 1961 . Given the demands of his career in the Navy and NASA , Pete and Jane spent a great deal of time apart , and Pete saw less of his boys growing up than he would have liked . Even after he retired from NASA and the Navy , he kept himself busy . Pete told his son that he had cheated on Jane for twenty years . Jane was devastated . In 1988 , Pete and Jane divorced . Both Pete and Jane remarried . In 1989 , Conrad ’ s youngest son , Christopher , was stricken with a malignant lymphoma . He died in April 1990 , at the age of 28 . Conrad met Nancy Crane , a Denver divorcee , through mutual friends . Conrad and Crane married in 1990 . Death . Conrad died on July 8 , 1999 , less than three weeks before the celebrations of the 30th anniversary of the first moon landing . While motorcycling in Ojai , California , with his wife and friends , he ran off the road and crashed . His injuries were first thought to be minor , but he died from internal bleeding about six hours later . He was buried with full honors at Arlington National Cemetery , with many Apollo - era astronauts in attendance . In television and film . Conrad played himself in the 1991 television movie " Plymouth " , about a fictional lunar base ; and in the 1975 made - for - TV movie , " Stowaway to the Moon " . In the 1995 film " Apollo 13 " , Conrad was played by David Andrews . In the 1998 HBO miniseries " From the Earth to the Moon " , he was played by Peter Scolari ( in episode 1 , " Can We Do This ? " ) and by Paul McCrane ( in episode 7 , " That ' s All There Is " ) . Quotes . " If you can ’ t be good , be colorful . " — Conrad ' s personal motto . A month before he died , Conrad appeared on ABC News " Nightline " and said , " I think the Space Shuttle is worth one billion dollars a launch . I think that it is worth two billion dollars for what it does . I think the Shuttle is worth it for the work it does . " " If you don ' t know what to do , don ' t do anything . " — Conrad ' s advice for working in space , quoted in the book " From the Earth to the Moon " . Tribute . The Johnson Space Center in Houston , Texas , has a grove of trees that have been planted to honor the memory of the astronauts who have died . After Conrad ’ s death , NASA planted a tree in his honor . During the dedication ceremony , his Apollo 12 crewmate Alan Bean , during his speech , pseudo - " channeled " Conrad , who purportedly sent instructions from the hereafter . According to Bean , Conrad ' s instructions were that NASA light all the trees but one every Christmas season with white lights — but in keeping with his motto , Conrad ' s tree would have colored lights . NASA has honored this " request " , and every Christmas since then , all of the trees in the grove have been lit with white lights , except Conrad ' s tree , which has been lit with red lights . Conrad Foundation . On September 8 , 2008 , The Conrad Foundation announced the launch of their 2008 Spirit of Innovation Challenge . Teams of high school students across the nation are invited to compete in this innovative program . The competition engages high school students in creating commercial products using science and technology . “ It is important to leave a great country for our children . It may be even more important to leave great children for our country . ” - Nancy Conrad The Conrad Foundation ’ s Spirit of Innovation Challenge invites high school students and their coaches ( teachers , parents ) to Get Their Genius On during its annual competition . Using science , technology , engineering and math skills , teams develop innovative products to help solve global and local problems while supporting global sustainability . As part of the program , the Conrad Challenge matches participants with world - renowned scientists , engineers and entrepreneurs as mentors to assist with advanced academic and business principles . Student teams compete for awards and recognition , including a chance to attend the annual Innovation Summit where they will present their products and vie for seed grants , patent support and commercial opportunities . The Conrad Challenge is free and available to students from all socioeconomic levels . The Spirit of Innovation Challenge gives teachers an exciting and dynamic way to teach STEM . We provide a way for teachers to go beyond the textbook and help students truly understand how what they are learning can be applied to something with large - scale social impact . The Spirit of Innovation Challenge is not just a program … it is a movement to train the next generation and drive the economy of tomorrow .