Charles "Pete" Conrad, Jr. (June 2, 1930 - July 8, 1999), was an American astronaut and the third man to walk on the moon. He served on Gemini 5 & 11, Apollo 12, and Skylab 1 missions, and may have been scheduled for the Apollo 20 mission, which was canceled.
Conrad was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. After receiving a bachelor's degree in Aeronautical Engineering from Princeton University in 1953 he entered the United States Navy, where he became a test pilot. He was one of the second group of astronauts selected by NASA in 1962. He retired from NASA and the Navy in 1973, and went to work for American Television and Communications Company , and then McDonnell Douglas in 1976.
After stepping onto the lunar surface, Conrad joked about his own small stature by remarking:
- Whoopie! Man, that may have been a small one for Neil, but that's a long one for me.
He later revealed that this was in order to win a bet he had made with Oriana Fallaci.
He was killed in Ojai, California while riding his motorcycle.
In the 1998 HBO miniseries From the Earth to the Moon, Conrad was played by Peter Scolari (in the first episode, "Can We Do This?") and by Paul McCrane in episode 7, "That's All There Is").
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