in the Skylab program, seeing in it the best chance of flying in space again. Bean did so—Conrad commanded Skylab 2, the first crewed mission to the space station, while Bean commanded Skylab 3. Gordon, though, still hoped to walk on the Moon and remained with the Apollo program, serving as backup commander of Apollo 15. He was the likely commander of Apollo 18, but that mission was canceled and he did not fly in space again. The Apollo 12 command module Yankee Clipper, was displayed at the Paris Air Show and was then placed at NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia; ownership was transferred to the Smithsonian in July 1971. It is on display at the Virginia Air and Space Center in Hampton. Mission Control had remotely fired the service module's thrusters after jettison, hoping to have it skip off the atmosphere and enter a high-apogee orbit, but the lack of tracking data confirming this caused it to conclude it most likely burned up in the atmosphere at the time of CM re-entry. The S-IVB is in a solar orbit that is sometimes affected by the Earth. The ascent stage of LM Intrepid impacted the Moon November 20, 1969, at 22:17:17.7 UT (5:17pm EST). In 2009, the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) photographed the Apollo 12 landing site, where the descent stage, ALSEP, Surveyor3 spacecraft, and astronaut footpaths remain. In 2011, the LRO returned to the landing site at a lower altitude to take higher resolution photographs. See also Google Moon List of artificial objects on the Moon List of spacewalks and moonwalks 1965–1999 References Bibliography External links "Apollo 12" at Encyclopedia Astronautica "Apollo 12" at NASA's National Space Science Data Center "Apollo 12 Traverse Map" at the USGS Astrogeology Science Center Lunar Orbiter 3 Image 154 H2, used for planning the mission (landing site is left of center). NASA reports "Apollo 12 Preliminary Science Report" (PDF), NASA, NASA SP-235, 1970 "Analysis of Apollo 12 Lightning Incident", (PDF) February 1970 "Analysis of Surveyor 3 material and photographs returned by Apollo 12" (PDF) 1972 "Examination of Surveyor 3 surface sampler scoop"(PDF) 1971 "Table 2-40. Apollo 12 Characteristics" from NASA Historical Data Book: Volume III: Programs and Projects 1969–1978 by Linda Neuman Ezell, NASA History Series (1988) The Apollo Spacecraft: A Chronology NASA, NASA SP-4009 "Apollo Program Summary Report" (PDF), NASA, JSC-09423, April 1975 Multimedia "Apollo 12: Pinpoint For Science" on