Identification Plate from the Apollo 12 Lunar Module

50 years ago, today, Apollo 12 took off for the moon… and was struck by lightning twice after takeoff, with the plume acting as a lightning rod to Earth. This flipped circuit breakers for all of the fuel cells and disabled the instrumentation in the Command Module housing the astronauts, flipping almost every warning light. But the Saturn V rocket continued to fly normally, guided by the Saturn V flight control computer, which functions independently from the Command Module and is located in a huge ring lower down the rocket.

Launched just four months after Apollo 11, this mission featured several firsts. Apollo 12 was: the first rocket launch attended by a U.S. president (Richard Nixon); the first precision lunar landing (Conrad landed within a few hundred feet of target); the first human examination of a previously-launched space probe (Surveyor 3); the first color television camera on the moon; and the first installation of a nuclear-powered Apollo Lunar Surface Experiments Package (ALSEP) for long-term data transfer back to earth.

After landing and returning from the moon, this plate was removed from the Apollo 12 Lunar Module, and brought back to Earth. Grumman mounted the ID plate on a wooden display. It reads:

APOLLO XII LUNAR MODULE-6
CDR. C. CONRAD CDR. R. GORDON CDR. A. BEAN
Part No. “LDW 280-54000-23” / Serial No. “001”
Dsgn Cont No. “1st Lunar Exploration” / Contr No. “NAS 9-1100”
“LAUNCH 11-14-69” / “SPLASHDOWN 11-24-69”.
Mfd. By Grumman Aircraft Engineering Corp.
Bethpage, New York U S FS Code 26512
James C. Harrington

Beneath is a brass plaque engraved as follows: “This Nameplate Carried To and Returned From the Moon in APOLLO XII. The First Scientific Exploration of the Ocean of Storms”