Pete Conrad on the Moon during the Apollo 12 mission.
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Courtesy of NASA

Charles 'Pete' Conrad Passes Away
News story originally written on July 12, 1999

Charles 'Pete' Conrad died due to a motorcycle accident. He was 69 years old. Conrad was the third person to ever step on the Moon. He led the Apollo 12 mission to the Moon, where he and astronaut Alan Bean picked up some rocks and other items from Surveyor 3.

Conrad is very famous for what he said when he first stepped onto the Moon. When Neil Armstrong landed on the Moon during Apollo 11, he said, "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind." When Conrad landed, he said, "Whoopie! Man, that may have been a small one for Neil, but that's a long one for me."

Conrad was also in the Gemini program, and was part of the first crew to visit Skylab. He had a wife, Nancy, and three sons.

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