After graduating from the University of Washington, Gordon joined the US Navy, and after his first exposure to planes decided to become a pilot. Gordon said “Once I found what the airplane could do for me, or I could do for it, it was love at first sight.”
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Space Rocket History #236 – Apollo 12 – Command Module Pilot Richard “Dick” Gordon

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Ten days ago, their Saturn V rocket had blasted Bean and his crew mates out of earth’s gravitational pull. Now their home planet was pulling them back at more than 24,000 miles per hour, twelve times faster than a high-speed rifle bullet. “Boy,” said Bean, “we are really hauling!”
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Space Rocket History #257 – Apollo 12 – Return, Re-entry and Splashdown

Dick Gordon opened the tunnel to Intrepid, saw his companions floating in a dirty cloud of moon dust, and slammed the hatch closed. He called out, “You guys ain’t gonna mess up my nice clean spacecraft!”
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Space Rocket History #256 – Apollo 12 – Leaving the Moon

After a total of 31.6 hours on the moon, the Lunar Module ascent stage fired for about 7 minutes placing Intrepid into an orbit of 10 miles by 54 miles.
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Space Rocket History #255 – Apollo 12 – Lunar Liftoff

Conrad and Bean now walked north, up Surveyor Crater’s 14 degree slope. Fatigue set in as Pete and Al walked up the crater wall. The hand tool carrier was nearly full of rocks now and Bean felt the full weight of it.
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Space Rocket History #254 – Apollo 12 – Moonwalk 2 – Part 5 – Blocky Crater & Closeout

Surveyor 3 was now to their right, 300 feet away, gleaming in the morning sunlight. Antennas and sensors still reached upward from its tubular frame, just as they had on April 20, 1967, when the spacecraft thumped onto the moon amid blasts from its braking rockets.
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Space Rocket History #236 – Apollo 12 – Command Module Pilot Richard “Dick” Gordon

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