APOLLO 12- THE "WHOOPIE" MYTH

APOLLO 12- THE WHOOOPEEE MYTH.

There is a tendency in today's internet, pop-culture for lazy spaceflight writers to publish articles after, apparently, having only watched a few YouTube videos or some TV documentary as their research. The most frustrating thing about that is that a few of these writers appear on what many folks consider to be credible news sites. This only leads to the solidifying of the myth and twisting it into "history."

Among these myths is, what I like to call, the Apollo 12 Whoopie myth. That is the story that says Pete Conrad's first words as he "stepped" onto the lunar surface were, "Whoopie, Man, that may have been a small one for Neil, but that's a long one for me." In fact, when Conrad said those really fun words, he was actually standing on the LEM foot-pad  and had not yet stepped onto the lunar surface. Yet that casual and very "Pete Conrad" statement really surprised the media and immediately overshadowed his actual first words- which were, in fact, just as comical. Seen here is the official NASA transcription of that moment taken from the Apollo 12 Lunar Module onboard voice transcription, page 122:

19 22 14 CDR: Whoopie! Man, that may have been a small one for
Neil, but that's a long one for me. I'm going to step off the pad.

04 19 22 22 CDR: MARK.

04 19 22 23 CDR: Off the - ooo, is that soft and (s)queasy. Hey,
that's neat. I don't sink in too far. I'll try a little - Boy, that Sun's bright. That's just
like somebody - shining a spotlight on your hand.

04 19 23 10 CDR: Well, I can walk pretty well, Al, but I've got to
take it easy and watch what I'm doing. Boy,you'll never believe it. Guess what I see sitting
on the side of the crater.

04 19 23 25 LMP: The old Surveyor, huh?

04 19 23 26 CDR: The old Surveyor; yes, sir (laughter). Does that
look neat! It can't be any further than 600 feet from here. HOW about that?

So- there it is. Conrad's remark about Neil Armstrong was in reference to the distance from the bottom rung of the LEM's ladder to the foot-pad. Six seconds later he stepped onto the lunar surface.

Now- for those lazy spaceflight writers out there- it took me longer to compose this post than it did to look up that transcript. It is important for historians and writers to take the time and try and get it right. We cannot be right all of the time- but when we are wrong it is more important to go back, fix the error and ADMIT that we got it wrong in the past. Additionally- the FIRST sources for spaceflight reference should be the official transcripts, reports and audio recordings- not some TV documentary or HBO special DVD set.


For more about Apollo 12 see my book:

Growing up with Spaceflight- Apollo Part 1

Or... check out the e-book HERE