Nancy Conrad - Rocketman: Astronaut Pete Conrads Incredible Ride to the Moon and Beyond

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Table of Contents

NALNEW AMERICAN LIBRARY

New American Library
Published by New American Library, a division of
Penguin Group (USA) Inc., 375 Hudson Street,
New York, New York 10014, USA
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Penguin Books Ltd., Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England

First published by New American Library, a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

First Printing, May

Copyright Nancy Conrad and Howard A. Klausner, 2005

Introduction copyright Buzz Aldrin, 2005
All rights reserved

NEW AMERICAN LIBRARY and logo are trademarks of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA:

Conrad, Nancy.

Rocketman : astronaut Pete Conrads incredible ride to the moon and beyond / Nancy Conrad and Howard A. Klausner. p. cm.

eISBN : 978-1-101-09953-7

1. Conrad, Pete, 1930-1999. 2. AstronautsUnited StatesBiography. I. Klausner, Howard.

II. Title.

TL789.85.C657C66 2005

629.450092dc22 2004030189

Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise), without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.

The scanning, uploading, and distribution of this book via the Internet or via any other means without the permission of the publisher is illegal and punishable by law. Please purchase only authorized electronic editions, and do not participate in or encourage electronic piracy of copyrighted materials. Your support of the authors rights is appreciated.

http://us.penguingroup.com

In memory of Pete Conrad
and Inmemory of Pete Conrad of us
and dedicated to the child in all of us
who has experienced the exhilaration of
overcoming a challenge
and winning

He was the third manto walk on the Moon.
He was the first to dance on it.

He was the Rocketman.

INTRODUCTION

I have two memories that stand above all others when I think of Pete Conrad. I should qualify that by noting the fact that Pete and I were friends and colleagues for nearly forty years. Like me, Pete flew in NASAs Gemini Program. He also walked on the Moon, four months after I did in 1969. Both of us invested much of our post-NASA time, energy, and resources opening up space to the general public, not just a fortunate few. Truth told, I could probably summon up a thousand Pete Conrad memories, if pressed. But my two favorites pretty much sum up this lightning rod of a man all by themselves.

And neither is what youd probably think.

The first took place in the mid-nineties, when Pete and I found ourselves together in Los Angeles at an anniversary party celebrating an historic milestone. It wasnt terribly unusual for us to be at such an eventastronauts from our era are fortunate enough to have calendars full of such dates every year, many of them black-tie affairs, very stately and properly dignified.

This one was slightly different.

My wonderful wife, Lois Aldrin, and Nancy Conrad share a deep and abiding love for the rock band Pink Floyd, and when the bands record company decided to celebrate the twentieth anniversary of their milestone album, The Dark Side of the Moon, the ladies made darn sure they got an inviteby dragging two old guys who happened to have walked on the Moon as their dates. I probably dont need to note the fact that neither Pete nor I was terribly familiar with Pink Floyd, or this particular album. As a matter of fact, I recall more than a few grumbles and groans during the forty-five-minute drive to the gala about the two of us having to go to this thing in the first place.

Relax, said Lois and Nancy, turning up the CD player, playing this music we would be honoring tonight. You boys are going to have a ball.

As usual, they were right.

Now, if you dont know this about Pete, youre about to. He was, by far, the merriest prankster I ever met, simply unable to resist a good joke or yanking the chain of someone who took himself just a bit too seriously. We proceeded down the red carpet into the hall, fully aware that nobody in this crowd recognized us and that they were probably wondering how two guys born in 1930 managed to get a ticket. (Not to mention, why.) Our lovely wives were having a ball, so we got over ourselves.

Eventually, someone from one of those entertainment shows vaguely recognized us, or his boss did, and they fired up the TV lights and got a sound bite out of us. At the conclusion, the correspondent, who probably was in diapers when Apollo 11 and 12 flew, smirked at Pete and asked, So. What do you really think of Dark Side of the Moon?

Well, there is no dark side of the Moon, for starters. Pete smiled back.

Oh, really? Then what do you call that? The young man pointed rather snidely to a poster of the albums cover on the wall.

Oh, Im sure its a great record. Its just misnamed. There is no dark side of the Moon; theres just the other side. The light shines on it too. We just dont see it when it does.

The poor guy was confused, and not entirely convinced. He, like most people, including Mr. Floyd, I guess, was under the mistaken impression that the Moon does not rotate and that there is a dark side, on which the suns light never shines. Not so. And the guy certainly didnt seem to care for having his understanding of our solar system shaken up in front of his cameraman. But Pete being Pete, he patted the guy on the shoulder reassuringly. Trust me. Ive been there.

The evening ended with the crowd lying on beanbag chairs, staring up at a laser demonstration on the ceiling as the misnamed album played at a volume that I am certain is the limit of human sound tolerance. I looked over at the only other sixty-four-year-old in the room, and there was Pete, staring right back at me with the same amazed, excited, and just plain exuberant expression Id seen at least a thousand times.

Buzz, isnt this just super?!

There are a number of astronaut tomes out there; scores of histories and analyses of the achievements of the men and women of the space program, with all the detail that an engineering or history student could ever want. This book is not that.

This book is the story of a mana man who embodied the very spirit behind that space program. Charles Pete Conrad was a great pilot, a gifted engineer, a problem solver, and a natural-born leader. But it was that

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