Pete Conrad

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Lore & Background

Conrad was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and despite having dyslexia, he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in aeronautical engineering from Princeton University—which later made him the first Ivy League astronaut—and joined the U.S. Navy. In 1954, Conrad received his naval aviator wings, served as a fighter pilot and, after graduating from the U.S. Naval Test Pilot School (Class 20), as a project test pilot. In 1959, he was an astronaut candidate for Project Mercury. During the selection process, he rebelled against the invasive medical testing: during a Rorschach inkblot test, he told the psychiatrist that one blot card revealed a sexual encounter complete with lurid detail, and when shown a blank card, he turned it around, pushed it back and replied, "It's upside down." He also dropped his full enema bag on the desk of the clinic's commanding officer and walked out. His initial application was denied with the notation "not suitable for long-duration flight." Mercury veteran Alan Shepard later persuaded Conrad to reapply for NASA's second group, and in June 1962 he was selected.

In Their Own Story

On November 14, 1969, Apollo 12 was 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 down from the ladder of the Lunar Module onto a landing pad, Conrad joked about his own small stature by remarking: "Whoope!" He had set an eight-day space endurance record in 1965 on Gemini 5 with Gordon Cooper—the flight lasted 7 days 22 hours and 55 minutes, surpassing the then-current Russian record of five days. Conrad facetiously referred to the Gemini 5 capsule as a "flying garbage can." He later commanded Gemini 11 with pilot Richard Gordon, which docked with an Agena target vehicle immediately after achieving orbit and reached the highest-apogee crewed Earth orbit ever, at 1,369 kilometers (851 miles). In 1973, Conrad commanded Skylab 2, the first crewed Skylab mission, where he and his crewmates repaired significant launch damage to the space station.

Reader's Guide

In our real-world history, Pete Conrad was a NASA astronaut who became the third person to walk on the Moon during Apollo 12 and later commanded Skylab. He was born on June 2, 1930, in Philadelphia, the third child and first son of Charles Conrad Sr. and Frances De Rappelage Conrad. The Great Depression wiped out the family's fortune, and in 1942 they lost their manor home and moved into a small carriage house. Conrad had dyslexia, a condition little understood at the time. He attended the Haverford School, a private academy, but after failing most of his 11th grade exams, Haverford expelled him. His mother found Darrow School in New Lebanon, New York, where Conrad learned a systems approach to work around his dyslexia. Despite having to repeat the 11th grade, he excelled and after graduation in 1949 was admitted to Princeton University with a full Navy ROTC scholarship. Starting when he was 15, he worked at Paoli Airfield, bartering odd jobs for airplane flights and instructional time. At 16, he drove almost 100 miles to help a flight instructor whose plane had made an emergency landing, repaired it single-handedly, and earned flight lessons that led to his pilot's certificate before high school graduation. He graduated from Princeton in 1953 with a B.S. in aeronautical engineering after completing a 200-page senior thesis titled "The Design of a Turbo-Jet Military Advanced Trainer." He was commissioned an Ensign in the U.S. Navy. After retiring from NASA and the Navy in 1973, he became a vice president of American Television and Communications Company, then worked for McDonnell Douglas in various vice president roles. Conrad died in 1999 from internal injuries sustained in a motorcycle accident, aged 69.

Did You Know?

• Conrad was the first Ivy League astronaut, having earned a Bachelor of Science degree in aeronautical engineering from Princeton University.
• During the Mercury selection process, Conrad dropped his full enema bag on the desk of the clinic's commanding officer and walked out, leading to his application being denied with the notation 'not suitable for long-duration flight.'
• Conrad set an eight-day space endurance record on Gemini 5 in 1965, though the actual flight duration was 7 days 22 hours and 55 minutes.
• Gemini 11, commanded by Conrad, reached the highest-apogee crewed Earth orbit ever at 1,369 kilometers (851 miles).
• President Jimmy Carter awarded Conrad the Congressional Space Medal of Honor in 1978 for repairing significant launch damage to the Skylab space station.