on sunday, november 24, 10:30 a.m. eastern, coverage continues with the former under kerry of state -- undersecretary of state in the obama administration. on the 1950's red scare. a journalist discusses former mayor bloomberg. the state of cia detention centers. former professional football player don mcpherson on toxic masculinity. watch live coverage of the miami book fair november 23 and 24 on book tv. this past july marked the 50th anniversary of the apollo 11 moon landing. four months later, apollo 12 blasted off on the second

manned mission to land on the moon. next, a documentary telling the story of the mission, beginning with a lightning strike to the launch vehicle 26 -- 36 seconds after liftoff. ♪ 1967, surveyor three landed on the moon, in a crater of oceana's -- of the ocean of storms. with surveyor's electronic eye, we viewed the lunar surface. with its mechanical arm, we dug a small, shallow trench in the lunar soil. 1969, 31ovember 14, months after surveyor's landing, men were leaving the earth to land on the ocean of storms.

charles pete conrad. richard gordon. alan bean. the crew of apollo 12. the second manned landing on the face of the moon. their target, the site of surveyor 3. >> ignition sequence start. 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. 0. all engines running. commence liftoff. >> apollo 12 lifted off in the driving rain. >> pete conrad reports that the program is in. tower clear. going. baby is really

>> 36 seconds later, lightning struck the spacecraft. >> i don't know what happened here. we had everything in the world dropout. >> you've been hit by lightning. >> [indiscernible] >> overload 1, 2. >> we're all organized again. >> we haven't had -- have had a couple cardiac arrests down here, too, pete. >> houston. >> you're looking good. >> in space and on earth, they checked out the systems to be sure that the lightning had caused no damage that would endanger the mission. the time for commitment neared. the burn to send apollo 12 to the moon. trans lunar injection, tli.

houston, the word is your good for go for tli. >> whoopdy doo. we are ready. >> we didn't expect anything else. >> we didn't train for anything else, pete. >> you better believe it. >> thrust is go. burn looks good. >> with engine cutoff, apollo 12 was on its way to the moon. now they turned around to dock with the lunar module and pull it free of the now useless booster. >> we got a hard dock, houston. looks good. >> the next burn would place apollo 12 on a new to the moon. previous missions had followed a trajectory that would allow them to loop around the moon and with no furhter -- further burns

return to earth. apollo 12 would break out of the path. should a failure occur, a burn would be needed to get them home. >> 7, 6, 5. >> 3, 2, 1. >> [indiscernible] >> now they settled down to the routine of the outward flight. >> i'm trying all these things we didn't have, like shaving. i'm having a ball up here. >> roger. all dressed up and no place to go. >> oh, we are going someplace. we see it gets bigger and bigger all the time. >> then on november 17, they prepared for orbit around the moon.

the left is not as apparent as our motion toward the moon. pete has the impression that we are going right into the center of that baby right now. >> ok, houston. we are maneuvered to the burn altitude. >> we copy that. >> we're beginning to go into darkness at this time. >> roger, 12. >> in fact, we are there. >> hello, houston. 12, you are go for l.o.i. >> burn checklist is complete. .i., lunar orbit insertion. the burn that would place apollo 12 into orbit around the moon. with this burn occurring behind the moon, there would be no communications with the spacecraft until it came over

the lunar horizon. the command module, you clipper -- yankee clipper, the lunar module, intrepid. >> apollo 12, houston. >> hello, houston. yankee clipper with intrepid is go, has arrived on time. i guess that all thre eof -- three of us are plastered to the window looking. >> the next day, pete conrad and alan bean entered the lunar module, leaving gordon in the command module. >> ok. again. go >> back off.

-- there he goes. >> say, houston, this is running pretty smooth today. insertion the orbit burn, the burn to begin dissent was made behind the -- begin descent was made behind the moon. >> intrepid, houston. how do you read? >> hello, this is intrepid. the review loud and clear. d.o.i.had a great >> fantastic. 3 target wasor located in the middle of five craters arranged like a snowman. the upper crater, called head crater, the body called surveyor crater. land as close as

possible to surveyor crater. then i 50,000 feet, intrepid -- at 50,000 feet, intrepid fired and began the sequence. >> i don't know where i am yet. >> ok. >> pete, look out there. i think i see my crater. >> i'm not sure. pete., there it is. there it is! son of a gun! right down the middle of the road! outstanding, 42 degrees, pete. i can't believe it! >> amazing! fantastic! >> 42 degrees, pete. coming down at about 99 feet per second looking good. >> go for landing. >> 40 degrees.

>> that's so fantastic. i can't believe it. >> at 2000 feet. 1800 feet up. degrees.s, 36 1200 feet. coming down at 30. looks good out there, dave. 32 degrees. feet.rees, 600 >> look at that crater, right where it is supposed to be. it's beautiful. you're really maneuvering around. >> come on down, pete. >> ok, 10% fuel. coming down at three. come on down. 180 feet. 9%, looking good. want to get some dust -- going t o get some dust. slow down the descent rate. 50 feet. watch for the dust.

looking good. coming down. plenty of gas. hang in there. coming down. >> he's got it made. 24 feet. contact light. >> roger, copy contact. >> ok. commande got your override off. >> good thing we leveled off high and came down. i sure to see what was underneath us -- sure couldn't see what was underneath us. >> is a nice place to land -- it's a nice place to land. look at those boulders out on the horizon. >> as conrad and bean begin menr first preparations, on earth began preparing their

landing site. they were aided by gordon. >> well done, clipper. >> [indiscernible] >> roger. the 28 gordon using power sextant for these sightings. >> i see surveyor. >> roger, clipper. good eyeball. well done. >> a major goal of apollo 12 had been accomplished. before men can engage in meaningful and her exploration, they must -- meaningful lunar exploration, they must get there

conrad climbed out first. >> [indiscernible] i'll tell you what we are parked next to. we are about 25 feet in front of the surveyor crater. >> we're where we wanted to be. >> i that when i get to the bottom of the ladder, i see a surveyor. -- i bet when i get to the bottom of the ladder, i see a surveyor. [indiscernible] you will never believe it. guess hwat -- what i see just up the side of the crater? the old surveyor. does that look neat?

it can't be further than 600 feet from here. >> now pete conrad selected a preliminary geological sample. impression iided don't want to move too rapidly, but i can walk quite well. it feels a little weird. don't think [indiscernible] >> could work out here all day. take your time. [humming] now al bean left intrepid to join conrad on the surface of the moon. >> [indiscernible] >> ok. >> don't lock it.

feet- if i'd landed 20 behind where i landed, we'd have landed in that crater. >> inadvertently, the television camera was pointed at the sun, causing the two to -- tube to bu rn out, the only unsuccessful aspect of the mission. >> we have the flag up. hope everybody -- [indiscernible] >> affirmative, pete.with e are proud of what you are doing. >> came prepared an -- they prepared an experiment package that would send information to earth for a year, powered by a nuclear electric generator. >> ok. [indiscernible] able to move out

with this. siteey moved to the selected to set up the station. >> hey, there's another one of those mounds. >> hey, you're right. what do you think they are? >> i don't know. it looks like some kind of volcano. >> they put together the experiment station. >> how far do you estimate we hould have -- we [indiscernible] apollo lunar services experiments package, piece by piece, they assembled the statio n. >> [indiscernible] >> the solar wind experiment to thrown atomic particles off by the sun as they strike the moon. a device to measure them's

tenuous -- the moon's tenuous atmosphere. later be field would found to be tended -- 10 to 20 times stronger than many scientists expected. a data station to collect measurements and transmit them to earth. conrad anddeployed, bean began collecting geological samples. >> [indiscernible] >> they drilled a tube into the service to collect soil from various that's -- depths. >> [indiscernible] >> we show you are three hours, seven minutes into the e.v.a. we'd like you back to start the

closeout in ten minutes, three plus one seven. >> i hope to get back there. [indiscernible] >> houston, we're approaching the alsep, headed back to the landing. >> we are picking up your heavy footprints going by the seismometer. >> ok. we are filthy. coming up the ladder. >> shaking the whole thing. >> sorry about that. >> yankee clipper, houston. >> [indiscernible] >> clipper, you were the forgotten man for a while. all eyes are on you now. >> as dick gordon circled the

bean pete conrad and alan prepared for the next mission. 12 1/2 hours later, they went out again. >> ok, houston. >> roger, copy, pete. >> before they began their geological expedition to surrounding craters and to surveyor, they got ready the tools and containers they would need. >> [indiscernible] >> roger, we copy that. i wonder what happened since yesterday. >> i don't know. i think everybody learned. >> as bean ready the equipment, conrad went out to the aslep -- alsep station to check an instrument. >> check the side.

[indiscernible] >> houston, pete's on his way to the alsep. >> after conrad checked the experiments, they began the geological traverse, during which they would cover about a mile and take samples from six craters. >> you get a big surprise when you look into this crater. it's a lot deeper than it looks. >> there you go. that's a good rock. look at the pits in it, too. this is going to be a good rock, you sent. ok, -- rock, houston. ok. >> that's a big fragment. >> fantastic sight. al, look at the bottom of that crater. here's some good rock samples. >> [indiscernible] small back that look

there. >> pete, we show your 1200 feet -- you're 1200 feet from the landing. >> you know what i feel like? the picture of the giraffe running in slow motion. that's exactly what i feel like. >> [laughter] >> i'm going to sleep tonight. >> then they arrived at surveyor, their target. while the surveyor activities were a bonus, they were symbolic, symbolic of success of apollo 12. >> we're just going to move to the area. [indiscernible] dug up dirt. still setting there. ok, houston. i'm jiggling it. the surveyor is firmly planted here. that's no problem. ok, al. we are ready to start getting the tv camera. >> ok.

>> you see that material disintegrate. that's easy. ok. two more cubes on the tv camera and it's ours. >> done. there you go. >> in the bag. >> i've got to zip it up. >> let me cupt -- cut this scoop off. >> they let surveyor. after a stop at the greater -- at a crater, they were back at the lunar module, selecting -- collecint g-- collecting the solar wind experiment and stowing the rock boxes. >> i'm trying to blow off the dust. >> bean reentered the lunar module first. conrad, using a transfer apparatus, sent the samples up to him. conrad, too, let the lunar

surface -- left the lunar surface. >> ok. me offn, if you can mark the lunar surface. >> roger, we got that, pete. three hours and 50 minutes. >> up the ladder i come. >> there was no time to rest. the lunar module had to be prepared for lift off from the moon and rendezvous with yankee clipper. >> looking good, pete. >> 3, 2, 1, liftoff. away we go. >> [indiscernible] >> on our way. >> [indiscernible] >> ok. >> everything looks good. >> sure does.

>> so they rose to their rendezvous. from the gordon -- dick gordon and yankee clipper -- >> maybe half a mile. [indiscernible] looking better all the time, yankee. a approaching at theree feet second. >> intrepid now with yankee clipper. >> the vehicles moved together for docking. >> [indiscernible] >> ok. steady as a rock. boys. you're all clear, >> conrad and bean rejoined dick gordon in the command

module, bringing with them the samples and photographs to be returned to earth. the next step, jettison the lunar module and send it crashing into the moon. the was designed to detect impact of landslides and so on. >> the two spacecraft have separated. >> apollo 12, houston. it's on its way down. >> [indiscernible] >> the men on earth monitored the output of the seismometer, waiting for impact. >> countdown for impact, 3, 2, 1. mark. limb impact. >> as for the meaning of it, i would rather not make an interpretation right now, but it is as though one had struck a

bell, say, in the belfry of the church, a single blow, and found that during the liberation -- the reverberation of it continued for 30 minutes. >> after 55 minutes, durations still had not -- the reverberations still had not faded completely. continued its mission , gathering photos, and then it was time to head back to earth. >> roger, roger, bye-bye. see you on the other side. >> have fun. >> the burn to send them home would take place behind the moon. on earth, we waited for apollo 12 once more. houston. 12, >> hello, houston. apollo 12 en route home. >> shortly before reentry, the

crew watched the earth move to blot out the sun. >> you're getting a fantastic view. >> apollo 12 hit the atmosphere of earth at 25,000 miles per hour. >> right on the money. >> we concur, pete. ♪ ♪ of apollo 12 does not end with splash down. it only begins. man, and] -- have i got the

grapefruit rock of all grapefruit rocks. anand on the moon, experiment a station called alsep -- an experimental station called alsep sends back its data. >> it has been turned on, and i'm happy to say it is functioning perfectly. >> it's been functioning since it was turned on. >> the experiment, as has been reported, is functioning in all respects properly. >> i think it will represent a major discovery of completely unanticipated things about the moon. >> your going to have to throw the book away and begin over again, which seems to be the case with the moon in general. >> apollo 12 was a milestone in manned extraterrestrial exploration.

it achieved its pinpoint landing, as close as possible to its selected target market by surveyor. it set a pace and pattern of scientific exploration that future missions will not only follow, but will go beyond. ♪ >> you can watch archival films on public affairs in their entirety on our weekly series, reel america. saturday at 10:00 p.m. and sunday at 4:00 p.m. eastern here on american history tv. night on "q&a," pamela

constable talks about her experiences covering that region. >> sometimes people will say things critical of the united states or of the west. that is more common than somebo dy saying something offensive about being a woman or causing problems. people tend to be, generally speaking, speaking very broadly now, more helpful to a woman than to a man. they can also try to take advantage of you in various ways, but generally my experience has been that if they are not going to like something about you or are going to mistrust something about >> one on what your sunday night at 8:00. 8:00tch sunday night at p.m. eastern on c-span's q&a. >> the western history

association hosts a panel entitled, does the west matter? about thears talk west geographically, politically and socially, and discuss the broader role of regions when discussing the past and president of the united states. this was part of the organization's 2019 annual meeting. afternoon. i'm the president of the wha. tois my great pleasure welcome you to the presidential plenary session. does the west matter? the future of regionalism in american history. there are 150 sessions taking place at the wha, but the presidential plenary brings us all together in one place. introducing this panel, i want to take advantage of our collective presence,