Godspeed, Dick Gordon: Seattle-born Apollo 12 astronaut passes away at 88

Apollo 12 was the sixth manned flight in the United States Apollo program and the second to land on the Moon. It was launched on November 14, 1969, from the Kennedy Space Center, Florida, four months after Apollo 11. Mission commander Charles "Pete" Conrad and Lunar Module Pilot Alan L. Bean performed just over one day and seven hours of lunar surface activity while Command Module Pilot Richard F. Gordon remained in lunar orbit. The landing site for the mission was located in the southeastern portion of the Ocean of Storms.

Wikipedia - Apollo 12.

The first Seattle-born astronaut to fly in space, [Richard F.] Dick Gordon, [Jr.], passed away on Monday at his home in California at the age of 88, NASA and the Astronaut Scholarship Foundation reported.

He flew into orbit in 1966 as pilot for the Gemini 11 mission. Three years later, he was the command module pilot for Apollo 12, and orbited the moon while crewmates Pete Conrad and Alan Bean went down to the lunar surface.

Gordon was born in Seattle in 1929 and graduated from North Kitsap High School in Poulsbo, Wash., in 1947. He received his bachelor’s degree in chemistry from the University of Washington in 1951.

After college, Gordon became a naval aviator.

Geekwire, Nov. 7, 2017 - Godspeed, Dick Gordon: Seattle-born Apollo 12 astronaut passes away at 88.

There were 24 astronauts that went to the moon during the Apollo mission. Half of the 12 men that walked on the moon have passed.



Dick Gordon went on to be an executive with the New Orleans Saints. The write up said he was also an oil executive. His second wife died in September. He is survived by six children. Condolences to the family for these recent loses.

The Right Stuff is all I can think of. The training, the testing, the stuff Tom Wolfe chronicled in his book.

It is hard to say good-bye to an era. Godspeed indeed...

We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard.

President John F. Kennedy, at Rice University, Sept. 1962

He went to North Kitsap High School, which is ten miles north of me. He may have been born in Seattle across the water (Bet you his Mom took a ferry to get there), but we in the West Sound claim him as our own.

a reply to: schuyler

I always get asked who Alaskans choose as pro teams. The answer has always been the same since I was a kid: Seattle.

That town is the gateway to Alaska. We get kind of protective of those we care about!

I need to visit the Apollo 12 museum next time I'm down there. And see a real, genuine moon rock!

Wikipedia says he was 40 when he flew to the moon! That is pretty cool!

Sorry about your hometown space hero.

originally posted by: TEOTWAWKIAIFF

The Right Stuff is all I can think of. The training, the testing, the stuff Tom Wolfe chronicled in his book.

It is hard to say good-bye to an era. Godspeed indeed...

That about sums it up. It's not just about looking up, it's about looking up to the right people, they were indisputably, the right people, and those of today as much so. R.I.P. Richard Gordon.

a reply to: smurfy

Now it is about meaningless celebrity and being famous for being famous.

These men, and their spouses, actually did something. It was not fun. People died. In the end, they got it done. Nobody else on the planet has bothered to try sending humans beings back to the moon.

Makes it all the more sad that NASA announced his death over twitter.