President Nixon himself was in attendance at Cape Canavereal to witness the historic second manned mission to the moon. Five days later the landing module made a soft landing near the northwest rim of the Ocean of Storms, and Charles Conrad, Jr. and Edward L. Bean emerged out for the third and fourth ever walk on the moon. The two spent several hours taking samples and observations, and examining the Surveyor lander that touched down at the spot two years prior. Then, as their mission completed, the Apollo 12 launched back up and towards home.

On this day, November 24, 1969, the three Apollo 12 astronauts splashed down in the ocean, a few miles away from the USS Hornet aircraft carrier, sent out to retrieve it.

Mission Control in Houston along with the Apollo 12 crew monitored the weather conditions to find the optimal place to land the command module. As the module began descent, CapCom Don Lind was on the line with Apollo commander Richard F. Gordon, Jr, the third man of the crew, joking “Are you ready for the big day? … We’ve got a nice little section in the South Pacific reserved for you. And we have most of the Navy standing by to pick you up.”