Conrad

July 9, 1999
Web posted at: 3:46 a.m. EDT (0746 GMT)

From staff and wire reports

OJAI, California -- Former astronaut Charles "Pete" Conrad died Thursday after a motorcycle accident in California.

The Ventura County sheriff's office says the 69-year-old ran off the road near Ojai, California on Thursday afternoon during a ride with friends. Conrad, who lived in Huntington Beach near Los Angeles, died later at an Ojai hospital.

Conrad commanded the Apollo 12 mission in 1969, becoming the third person to walk on the moon. He spent seven hours and 45 minutes on the lunar surface, along with astronaut Alan Bean.

NASA selected Conrad, an aeronautical engineer, for the astronaut program in 1962. He set an endurance record on his first flight in 1965, piloting the Gemini 5 mission. A year later, Conrad commanded Gemini 11, which docked with another craft and featured space walks by another pilot.

Conrad, who was an aviator in the U.S. Navy after graduating from Princeton University, also flew in the first manned Skylab mission, in 1973. During this mission, he established a personal endurance record for time in space, with 1,179 hours and 38 minutes.

After retiring from NASA and the Navy, he worked as chief operating officer of American Television and Communications Corp. in Denver and later for McDonnell Douglas Corporation, the aviation manufacturer.

In 1995, he formed his own company called Universal Space Lines and several sister companies with the goal of commercializing space.

"He was going back to space as an entrepreneur, trying to create ways for rockets to launch inexpensively and manage satellites," said his widow, Nancy Conrad.

Conrad is survived by his wife, four sons and seven grandchildren. A son preceded him in death.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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