Apollo 12 - Pinpoint For Science (1970)
Video from the channel AIRBOYD about Apollo 12, linked on its Above Ten Thousand entry. Duration: 28:34. Language: English. Video type: Archive footage.
What it shows
NASA film devoted to the second crewed mission to land on the Moon, Apollo 12, focusing on its scientific side, as its title indicates. It follows the crew, among whom Richard Gordon and Alan Bean are heard named, from the trip to the Moon: the separation of the lunar module, while Gordon remains in orbit in the command module, and the work on the surface. It shows the deployment of the scientific experiments left on the lunar surface, the collection of geological samples, a tube driven into the ground to extract core samples, and the visit to the Surveyor probe, presented as a symbol of the mission's success. The narrator also recounts that the television camera, pointed directly at the Sun, burned out, the only failed aspect of the trip. The film closes with the return, the separation of the two spacecraft and the crew's return to Earth.
When and where it was filmed
It is a period institutional documentary, dated 1970 in its title, which mixes mission footage with animations and narration. The surviving audio track is mostly music, with occasional bits of narration.
Context
The film presents Apollo 12 as a milestone in extraterrestrial exploration, with which science becomes the protagonist of trips to the Moon.