They Shot for the Moon

Standing just 5'6", Pete Conrad was the shortest of the astronauts.   He was also one of the jokers.  Upon exiting the hatch of the lunar lander,"Intrepid", he pushed away to drop to the lunar surface and sang out for the entire world to hear, "That may have been one small step for Neil, but it was a long one for me."  With those words, he became the third man to set foot on lunar soil.  He piloted his lander to a touchtown just a short stroll away from the unmanned "Surveyor", which had landed to scout the Ocean of Storms landing site thirty one months earlier.

It had not been an uneventful trip for Conrad and his all Navy crew.  As he, Alan Bean and Dick Gordon lifted off aboard their "Yankee Clipper", lightning struck the Saturn V tripping the main circut breakers.  The huge space craft continued its journey while it automatically  brought its systems back on line to restore power to the operational, navigation and life support systems.

Pete Conrad died July 8, 1999 after losing control of his motorcycle on a mountian road while on an outing with his wife and friends.