54 Facts About Pete Conrad

Pete Conrad set an eight-day space endurance record in 1965 along with his Command Pilot Gordon Cooper on his first spaceflight, Gemini 5.

Later, Pete Conrad commanded Gemini 11 in 1966, and Apollo 12 in 1969.

Pete Conrad went on to work for McDonnell Douglas, as a vice president.

Pete Conrad died on July 8,1999, from internal injuries sustained in a motorcycle accident, aged 69.

Pete Conrad was born on June 2,1930, in Philadelphia, the third child and the first son of Charles Conrad and Frances De Rappelage Conrad, a well-to-do real estate and banking family.

Pete Conrad was considered a bright, intelligent boy, but he continually struggled with his schoolwork.

Pete Conrad had dyslexia, a condition little understood at the time.

Pete Conrad's mother refused to believe that her son was unintelligent, and she set about finding him a suitable school.

Pete Conrad found Darrow School in New Lebanon, New York.

Pete Conrad learned more about the mechanics and workings of aircraft and aircraft engines, and then he graduated to minor maintenance work.

Pete Conrad continued flying while he was in college, not only keeping his pilot's certificate, but earning an instrument flight rating.

Pete Conrad graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in aeronautical engineering from Princeton in 1953, after completing a 200-page-long senior thesis titled "The Design of a Turbo-Jet Military Advanced Trainer" with Richard V Warden, Richard W Vannata, and Calvin H Perrine.

Pete Conrad was commissioned an Ensign in the US Navy as a Naval ROTC graduate.

Pete Conrad was trained at the Naval Air Station Corpus Christi, Texas.

Pete Conrad was designated a Naval Aviator in September 1954 and became a fighter pilot.

Pete Conrad excelled in Navy flight school, and he served for several years as an aircraft carrier-based fighter pilot in the Navy.

Pete Conrad served as a flight instructor in Navy flight schools along the Gulf of Mexico.

Pete Conrad's classmates were future fellow astronauts Wally Schirra and Jim Lovell.

Pete Conrad graduated in 1958, as part of Class 20, and was assigned as a Project Test Pilot.

Pete Conrad became a captain in the US Navy on December 11,1969.

Pete Conrad logged more than 6,500 hours of flying time, with more than 5,000 hours in jet aircraft.

Pete Conrad joined NASA as part of the second group of astronauts, known as the New Nine, on September 17,1962.

Pete Conrad facetiously referred to the Gemini 5 capsule as a flying garbage can.

Pete Conrad tested many spacecraft systems essential to the Apollo program.

Pete Conrad was one of the smallest of the astronauts,.

Pete Conrad was then named commander of the Gemini 8 backup crew, and later commander of Gemini 11 with pilot Richard Gordon.

Pete Conrad was assigned in December 1966 to command the backup crew for the first Earth orbital test flight of the complete Apollo spacecraft, including the Lunar Module into low Earth orbit.

Five days later, after stepping down from the ladder of the Lunar Module onto a landing pad, Pete Conrad joked about his own small stature by remarking:.

Pete Conrad later revealed that he said this in order to win a bet he had made with the Italian journalist Oriana Fallaci for $500 to prove that NASA did not script astronaut comments.

Pete Conrad managed to pull free the stuck solar panel by sheer brute force, an action of which he was particularly proud.

Pete Conrad was returning to Houston from a visit to ILC Industries in Delaware.

Pete Conrad elected to divert to an airfield with better weather.

Pete Conrad ran out of fuel as he reached Bergstrom AFB and was forced to eject at 3,700 feet.

Pete Conrad landed about 100 yards from the base operations building and his airplane impacted in an open field about two miles away.

Pete Conrad retired from NASA and the Navy in 1973, and went to work for American Television and Communications Company.

Pete Conrad started as the vice president of operations and chief operating officer.

Pete Conrad was in charge of the operation of existing systems and the national development of new cable television systems.

In 1976, Pete Conrad accepted a position with McDonnell Douglas as a vice president and consultant.

From 1982 to 1984, Pete Conrad served as the senior vice president of marketing and product support.

Pete Conrad was appointed staff vice president of international business development in 1984.

Pete Conrad became vice president of project development in 1993.

On February 14,1996, Pete Conrad was part of the crew on a record-breaking around-the-world flight in a Learjet owned by cable TV pioneer, Bill Daniels.

Pete Conrad considered returning to the Moon "a waste of taxpayer money", but recommended missions to Mars and asteroids.

Pete Conrad met Nancy Crane, a Denver divorcee, through mutual friends.

Pete Conrad died on July 8,1999, from internal injuries sustained in a motorcycle accident.

Pete Conrad was wearing a helmet at the time and was operating within the speed limit.

Pete Conrad was buried with full honors at Arlington National Cemetery, with many Apollo-era astronauts in attendance.

Bean said, Pete Conrad wanted NASA to light his tree every Christmas season with colored lights instead of the white used for everyone else, in keeping with his motto "when you can't be good, be colorful".

Pete Conrad is inducted into several Aviation and Astronaut Halls of Fame.

Pete Conrad was one of ten Gemini astronauts inducted into the International Space Hall of Fame in 1982.

Pete Conrad was presented an Honorary Master of Arts degree from Princeton in 1966; an Honorary Doctor of Laws degree from Lincoln-Wesleyan University in 1970, and an Honorary Doctor of Science degree from Kings College, Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania in 1971.

Pete Conrad was a fellow of the American Astronautical Society; New York Academy of Sciences; American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, and the Society of Experimental Test Pilots.

Pete Conrad was discussed at length in Tom Wolfe's 1979 book, The Right Stuff, about the pilots engaged in US postwar research about rockets, although he was never mentioned in the 1983 film version.

Pete Conrad played a news commentator in the 1975 made-for-TV movie, Stowaway to the Moon, and himself in the 1991 television movie Plymouth, about a fictional lunar base, and in an American Express television commercial.