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Apollo 12: The NASA Mission Reports Vol 2: Apogee Books Space Series 50

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Robert Godwin and Apogee Books have, over the past six years, compiled a variety NASA documents, press kits, crew interviews and the like, which recount the early days of the space race, focusing on the Apollo missions. This time, they have released a second volume of information dedicated in the second lunar landing, Apollo 12, which includes a DVD of the lunar EVA and an excellent companion NASA publication. Apollo 12 was the only the second manned lunar landing. This mission was commanded by Charles "Pete" Conrad who was accompanied to the surface by Alan Bean with Dick Gordon as the Command Module pilot.

Regardless of whether or not you were alive to see the moon landings live on TV, you definitely can relive the excitement of that wondrous time by watching this two-sided DVD. The DVD covers all phases of the mission as well as training footage onboard the KC-135 affectionately known as the "Vomit Comet." The DVD has many hours of footage, with sound, related to launch, lunar landing, lunar EVA, recovery, splashdown, rendezvous, onboard TV, assembled panoramas, and 16 mm camera footage. The quality of the footage is not that great, but it is a good as it was when in was first broadcast in 1969.

The book that accompanies the DVD is a reprint of the Apollo 12 Mission Report prepared by the Mission Evaluation Team from the Manned Spaceflight Center in Houston. This report is essentially the scientific and engineering evaluation of the flight, so there is very little about the scientific findings and exploration. This lengthy report is 190 pages long and covers all aspects of the mission, from liftoff, lunar landing, the moonwalk, the experiments, and the return to Earth. In these pages, there are figures that show a comparison between a predicted value and an actual flight value (how much was used vs. how much was estimated). It also contains two fairly long sections, which describes both the Command and Service Module and the Lunar Module. The report also contains, many black and white photographs, line drawing and several technical graphs. While some readers may the report's writing a bit dry in some places, they are actually getting a view of how NASA operates and why their exploration programs for the most part are quite successful.

Some general information that might be useful.

1) This report is a scanned-in documents from a previously released NASA document. In order to preserve the spirit of the original reports, all typographical and grammatical errors have NOT been fixed.

2) Proceeds from the book goes to "The Watch" an asteroid impact research project of the Space Frontier Foundation. In other words, Apogee Books is making very little off the sale of US government produced books and documents.

3) Many people have asked why the post mission science reports are not included. Since NASA has published several books with hundred of pages each, the NASA Special Publications Series, it would be difficult to include this voluminous amount of data.

This Apogee Book/DVD combination is another great choice for the Apollo collector, especially at nearly 10 bucks off the list price. The DVD alone is worth the price! I agree with the other reviewer, Apogee should produce similar DVDs to go with all Apollo Mission Reports.

The only nitpick on the one I received of Apollo 12 - Volume II, was due to some adhesive residue that smeared on the outer surface of the DVD from where it is attached to the back inside cover of the book. However, a mild disc cleaning before first use, and I was able to play the video without problem.

One of the more unusual segments on the DVD is the KC-135's 1/6th gravity dress rehearsals with both Pete Conrad and Al Bean in their moon walking pressure suits. Some of that footage was actually quite comical when an astronaut fell over on his back - like a turtle - and appeared to be stuck. These are the kinds of things that make landing on the Moon and walking around seem so incredible, that some conspiracy theorists say it never ever happened. Well, if it was a hoax those poor astronauts sure had to go through a helleva training regime for nothing more than show.

I for one believe the Apollo missions were REAL and so were all of the moon walkers. In the astronauts' KC-135 escapades, you can appreciate more of what they went through up there as there are a variety of activities and details revealed inside an airplane simulation of 1/6-G that would otherwise be very difficult to make out during any of the TV broadcasts of Apollo EVAs. Pete Conrad even makes passing reference to the "1/6th G airplane simulation" during his first actual EVA on the Moon. This and much enthused voice communications between Pete and AL can be clearly heard thanks to audio sound track on the DVD.

As others have said, Apollo 12 was sorely lacking on TV coverage (albeit, color for this flight as opposed to B&W on Apollo 11) as well as rather spotty 16mm color film recordings of the mission. There is no coverage of any kind of Conrad and Bean's 2nd EVA, unfortunately, because it was the EVA with their most extensive exploration (on foot) away from the LM.

As had been carefully planned, Apollo 12 landed next to, and very close to the rim of a fairly sizeable crater, where an unmanned probe, Surveyor-III landed a couple years prior. Unfortunately, this large crater, and the old Surveyor probe could not be seen through LMP's window. This was the vantage point where the best film quality could be taken both during and after the landing, but after landing, the LM was facing away from the crater so it could not be viewed from the window. To make matters worse, the portable TV camera failed shortly in to the first EVA, before anything could be seen from it, other than where the astronauts came down the LM ladder.

There is a famous (still) photograph of one of the astronauts standing next to derrilic probe where it landed inside Surveyor crater, with the LM high up on the side of the rim clearly visible in the background, only about 600 feet away. It is really a shame the astronauts' secret plan to get a similar photo with both in the same picture was foiled by an elusive camera timer attachment device temporarily misplaced in the moon rock collection bag.

Apollo 12 seems to be one of the early missions that most people do not remember. 12 came after 11, and before 13, but those missions EVERYBODY remembers; the latter essentially a failure turned rescue mission overly dramatized by the media with nothing to further our knowledge of Lunar geology. The first landing of Apollo 11 played to a worldwide TV audience of hundreds of millions on Earth, but the B&W TV coverage was generally quite horrible in picture quality.

Apollo 14 took the place of the aborted mission of 13 exploring the Fra Mauro highlands, but somehow missed the prize of locating the nearby rim of Cone Crater, and thereby missing yet another fantastic lunar feature to have recorded on film. Then, there were the Lunar Rover enhanced, vastly extended lunar explorations of Apollo 15, 16 and 17 from July 1971 through December 1972, but sadly, there were to be no more mission after the spectacular success (and contributions to our scientific knowledge) of Apollo 17. Apollo Saturn spacecrafts were already bought and paid for, to have flown at least three additional missions, but taxpayers lost interest and the political will responded in kind. What a pity.

There are Apogee Mission Reports (some such as 11 and 12 in multiple volumes with DVDs) that are of long since past historical events, but all make for fascinating reading of what was accomplished and technologically possible more than 30 years ago. I yearn for what may be yet to come, whether it be new explorations of the Moon, or the first manned mission to Mars. I only hope to live long enough to be a part of it.

Apogee Books continues to add to the wealth of information that they have produced with their Apollo Series. Enough cannot be said as to the value of the reference material that they have packaged. For those of us that have interests in the flights besides Apollo 11, these books, and the Apollo 12 Volume 2 in particular, gives us access to information that if not previously unabtainable, required much effort and resources to obtain. I was particularly impressed with the real time landing footage merged with the audio transmissions - probably the first time it has been seen since it originally occured. I highly recommend this book and the series in general.

I was really impressed by the Apollo 12 - Volume 2, and all its DVD content.

The post-flight report is quite interesting, especially where it addresses activities conducted on and around the Surveyor 3 robot, which had landed on the moon a couple of years earlier.

Besides, it was great to see the original NASA broadcast feed of the launch and other mission highlights. After more than 35, years we finally get a chance to see the original broadcast video and to hear the original soundtrack. Moreover, the B/W video sequences give today's spectators a taste of how things were done and felt in 1969.

The addition of 35 or 16 mm color film does not add much to the launch sequences. We have seen those for decades...

It would be great if Apogee did the same job for other (or all) missions. I don't think anybody has ever marketed NASA broadcast video of Apollo launches and/or splash-downs. That would be a perfect niche for Apogee Books to fill.

Overall, the entire written science report about activities conducted on the moon, plus the human side of the story (captured by the video) make this volume an A+ collector item.

Once again, Apogee Books has given us an Apollo treasure trove. I especially love the DVD, which includes footage of the lunar landing with synchronized audio, and some NEAT training footage shot on the KC-135 aircraft in simulated one-sixth g. There's also a TV transmission from the command module, sent on the way home from the moon. And ... still more great stuff.

Apollo fans, rejoice!

-- Andrew Chaikin, author of "A Man on the Moon"

Volume two contains a great DVD with footage from the mission. The book itself is a nice companion to the first volume on the Apollo 12 mission. Another fine product from Apogee books and editor Robert Godwin. Pete would have loved these books!

Volume 2 picks up where Volume 1 left off in December 1, 1969. The two volumes really belong together for a full comprehensive picture of the facts of the mission. Volume 2 is the report of the mission after three months of analyzing what the guys brought back.

Yes, it is full of numbers, charts and analytical data that will be very dry reading if you're not into that kind of thing. For myself, not understanding many of the scientific regimens, I find the report fascinating. The mission was fantastic in itself, but the data from the lunar experiments package that came back well after they returned is amazing. A job well done by the astronauts and all the folks behind them that made it happen.

Another interesting aspect of the book is the NASA analysis of the "anomalies" of the mission. Why the TV camera failed, why the camera fell apart, why the windows were streaked the entire mission. Spacecraft wear and tear are examined with pictures that are very hard to come by some 40 years later. Huge thanks to the author who clearly put a lot of time and dedication into gathering and assembling this invaluable reference.

The included DVD is gold for anyone who was too young to have vivid memories of the TV coverage, or who wants their own copy to revisit and cherish. From the Launch (lightning strikes) to the Landing (lots of dust) to the EVA (most activity was off-camera) to the Recovery, the combined TV and 16mm camera footage is well worth the look. A great compliment to the technical content of the NASA report and a concise archive of the mission I am proud to keep on my bookshelf.

Like the other entries in the Apogee Space Books series, this Apollo 12 volume serves as a good reference. The book contains the mission report compiled after the mission ended and is a great reference.

As for the DVD, I was expecting both lunar EVAs, the other TV broadcasts, and material that covered more of the mission in terms of preparation. Also there is not very much audio on the DVD at all. Much more comprehensive material is available elsewhere (primarily from Spacecraft Films) which has a 3-DVD set on the mission (and others). The earlier reviewer should check out the series if they are looking for comprehensive DVDs of the footage from Apollo (and other U.S. space broadcasts and materials).