Off to the Moon Again

In a bow to exploratory tradition, the Apollo 11 astronauts planted the American flag on the moon during their epic visit last July. The Apollo 12 astronauts, who are due to lift off this week, will do the same. The gesture will soon become more than a matter of tradition. Last week, when the Senate approved the $3.7 billion space authorization bill for 1970, congressional chauvinists had the final word. The bill orders U.S. astronauts to raise the flag as one of their initial acts on reaching firma beyond terra.

Among those who are to gather this week at the cape to watch the blast-off is Richard Nixon, who will be the first President to witness a launching. It will be Nixon's second space first as President. In July, he was aboard the carrier Hornet to welcome back the Apollo 11 astronauts.

The scheduled flight of Apollo 12 is no less complex or hazardous than the earlier moon shots. This attempt will include a number of dangerous innovations. The trickiest is a free-flying approach to the moon that, if it is marred by an engine malfunction, could send the spacecraft into a deadly sun orbit.

Lonely Day. If the flight goes according to plan, the all-Navy crew will ride the nautically named Yankee Clipper into moon orbit after 83 hours in space. Then Skipper Charles ("Pete") Conrad, 39, and Space Rookie Alan Bean, 37, will board the module Intrepid for their trip to the moon's surface. While his fellow astronauts explore the Sea of Storms 69 miles below, Gemini Veteran Richard F. Gordon Jr., 40, will spend a lonely day and a half in orbit.

During their 32-hour moon visit, Conrad and Bean will take two walks, each lasting about four hours. Back on earth, television viewers will see all this in color. Following the advice of the Apollo 11 crew, the two astronauts will perform their own moon dance to get the feel of one-sixth gravity. Then they will go about collecting rocks and carrying out a series of sophisticated experiments. One of the astronauts will be lowered into a crater by his teammate to look around and to gather samples.

After the crew returns to the mother ship, the moon module Intrepid will be sent hurtling back to the moon's surface, and the Yankee Clipper will begin the return lap of its ten-day trip.

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