Conrad, Charles, Jr.

Conrad, Charles, Jr. 

Born June 2, 1930, in Philadelphia, Pa. US pilot and astronaut; navy captain.

Upon graduating from Princeton University in 1953, Conrad joined the navy. In 1961 he graduated from the Navy Test Pilot School in Maryland and began working there as a test pilot, flight instructor, and engineer. He then served in the Navy Air Station at Miramar. In 1962 he was selected for the group of astronauts by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

Conrad made his first spaceflight from Aug. 21 to Aug. 29, 1965 (with L. G. Cooper) as pilot of the Gemini 5 spacecraft. The spacecraft completed 120 orbits around the earth, traveling a total of 5.3 million km in 190 hr 56 min. He made his second spaceflight (with R. Gordon) as command pilot of the Gemini 11 spacecraft, which was put into orbit on Sept. 12, 1966. Gemini 11 completed 44 orbits around the earth in 71 hr 17 min, traveling a total of 1.8 million km. During the flight, the spacecraft docked with an Agena target vehicle and artificial gravity was produced for the first time on a spacecraft.

Conrad made his third flight into space (lasting 10 days 4 hr 36 min) from Nov. 14 to Nov. 24, 1969 (with R. Gordon and A. Bean) as commander of the Apollo 12 spacecraft on its journey to the moon and back. He and Bean made a landing on the Oceanus Procellarum (Ocean of Storms) on Nov. 19, 1969. Conrad made two trips onto the lunar surface and spent a total of 31 hr 31.5 min on the moon. He made his fourth flight as commander of an Apollo command module (with J. Kerwin and P. Weitz), which was placed into earth orbit on May 25, 1973. Nine hours after its launch, the spacecraft docked with the Skylab orbiting space station, which was placed into orbit on May 14, 1973. The joint flight of this space complex lasted about 659 hr, and the total flight time was 672 hr 50 min. During the flight, Conrad made two space walks lasting a total of 5 hr.

In his four voyages into space, Conrad flew a total of 1,179 hr 39 min.