Apollo
12 commander Charles ‘Pete’ Conrad Junior unfurls the United States flag on the lunar surface during the first extravehicular activity on Nov 19, 1969. Claudia Farkas Al Rashoud, a full-time reporter of the Arab Times at that time, was fortunate to have an exclusive interview with Conrad Junior when he came to Kuwait in October
1982.
With the fiftieth anniversary of the first manned lunar landing last month, much has been said and written of the intrepid astronauts who went to the moon. Most people know the name of the first man to set foot on the lunar surface and can even quote his words. “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind,” said Apollo 11 Commander Neil Armstrong as he stepped off the spacecraft’s lunar landing pad on July 20th, 1969.
There are fewer who could name the second human to walk on the moon: Lunar Module Pilot Buzz Aldrin. Ask someone about the third moonman and most people couldn’t tell you that it was Apollo 12 Commander Charles ‘Pete’ Conrad Junior who made a pinpoint landing with his lunar module Intrepid in November 1969.
Perhaps it’s not so surprising, therefore, that when Charles Conrad came to Kuwait in October 1982, the large number of journalists present at the press conference at Kuwait Airport had no idea who he was. Retired from NASA, at that time Conrad was with Douglas Aircraft Corporation, promoting the McDonnell Douglas Super 80 jetliner. Kuwaiti government and airline officials as well as journalists had been invited to join Conrad and other Douglas executives on a demonstration flight, and as a full-time reporter with the Arab Times I was fortunate to be among them.
At that time it had only been thirteen years since Conrad’s moon mission, and just nine years since he had commanded the first manned mission to Skylab, the first American space station. NASA astronaut, aeronautical engineer, naval officer, aviator and test pilot, Conrad set new records and earned many accolades during his distinguished space and aviation career.
I had already begun interviewing Conrad in the airport lounge. As we boarded the Super 80 jetliner I hoped to have a few more minutes to ask him some questions about his experiences in space. When none of the other journalists showed any interest in the former astronaut, he sat next to me for an exclusive interview that lasted the duration of the flight.
Following is my article about Charles Conrad, published thirty-seven years ago as the cover story in Arab Times Friday, a weekly news magazine that used to be distributed on the weekend with the Arab Times newspaper. “Moon man in Kuwait” Arab Times Friday, 29 October 1982 Charles ‘Pete’ Conrad Junior doesn’t stand out in a crowd. A relatively short man – at 5’6” he was the shortest of the Apollo astronauts – he stands in the middle of the VIP lounge at the old Kuwait Airport, chatting to reporters and McDonnell Douglas personnel. He answers questions matter-of-factly, with the ease of someone who has done this all many times before. He looks like a typical middle-aged American executive, but the twinkle in his eyes and an easy grin that reveals a gap between his teeth makes it easy to see why author Tom Wolfe nicknamed him the Hickory Kid, the practical joker of Project Mercury.
Someone comes over to Conrad and asks him if he’ll go out on the tarmac to pose with a group of Kuwait Airways technical people who have just returned from a demonstration flight on the Super 80. As Senior Vice-President of Marketing for Douglas Aircraft Corporation, Conrad is accompanying ‘Friendship ‘82’, Douglas’ new fuel-efficient low-noise aircraft, on its around-the-world demonstration tour.
Soon it’s time for our group to board the aircraft. After a few welcoming words from Conrad and a routine safety demonstration we’re off, heading south on our 50-minute flight. Now there’s time to ask the former astronaut some questions.
Conrad is one of the dozen men who have made the quarter of a million mile journey to the moon. As spacecraft commander of the Apollo 12 mission, the second mission to go to the moon, he spent eight hours walking on the desolate lunar surface, gathering samples and performing experiments. At the dramatic moment when his feet first touched the lunar soil he grinned and said, “That may have been a small step for Neil, but it was a giant leap for Pete.”
Television showed the brave men who bounded across the moon in bulky spacesuits and recorded their light-hearted banter, but all the while people were still wondering what it was really like up there. What did those men feel deep down in their souls, and afterwards, what effect did it have on their lives?
For each of the twelve Apollo astronauts the moon walk was a personal and very different experience. Ed Mitchell of Apollo 14 spoke of an instant global consciousness. Jim Irwin, on the same mission, felt a closeness to God. Pete Conrad, walking on the moon in November thirteen years ago, felt it was the logical conclusion to a mission for which he had been training for seven years.