Apollo 12 is hit by lightning on liftoff, but Cmdrs. Charles Conrad Jr. and Alan L. Bean make the second manned lunar landing with pinpoint accuracy. The lunar module Intrepid touches down about 200 yards from the Surveyor 3 probe, on the moon since 1967. The all-Navy crew, which also includes Cmdr. Richard F. Gordon Jr., is recovered in the Pacific Ocean by USS Hornet (CVS-12).
The Department of the Air Force's new space acquisition chief said he will seek to expand the types of orbits used by the Space Force's future satellite constellations in the interest of improving their resilience. At the same time, he would aim to acquire smaller satellites that can be produced…