[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 97 (Monday, July 12, 1999)]
[House]
[Page H5353]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




             IN MEMORY OF ASTRONAUT CHARLES ``PETE'' CONRAD

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from Maryland (Mrs. Morella) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mrs. MORELLA. Mr. Speaker, 20 years ago today, the NASA space 
laboratory Skylab fell to the earth in a rain of blue, red and orange 
fire over the Indian Ocean in Australia. I rise today to honor the 
memory of an astronaut who largely contributed to the success of that 
program.
  Charles ``Pete'' Conrad, who died last Thursday in a motorcycle 
accident at the age of 69, began service to his country as a U.S. Navy 
aviator after graduating from Princeton with an engineering degree. It 
continued when he was selected as a member of NASA's second class of 
nine astronauts. He flew on two Gemini missions, setting a space fight 
endurance record on Gemini 5, and commanded Gemini 11 which docked with 
another spacecraft, leading the way to the Apollo missions.
  He is best known, though, for the distinction of being the third man 
to walk on the Moon. Apollo 11 captured the world's imagination, but 
the mission missed its landing site by several miles. Commander 
Conrad's mission proved that not only could we go to the moon but we 
can land on our target. This mission goal was essential if any 
scientific exploration of the moon was going to take place. Unlocking 
the mysteries that the moon presents requires the ability to excavate 
specific sites. Apollo 12 and Pete Conrad proved this to be possible.
  Five years later, when Skylab was launched into orbit atop a Saturn V 
rocket, major damage was sustained which would have to be repaired in 
space if the microgravity laboratory program was to be useful. Pete 
Conrad answered the call to duty on the first manned mission to the 
space station. He and his crew mates repaired the damage in three 
exhaustive EVAs in addition to conducting a number of other experiments 
over the 3 weeks they spent aboard the station.
  When he left NASA, Pete Conrad was never far away. His enterprising 
spirit took him into the fertile environment of the commercial space 
industry, first with McDonnell Douglas and then on his own with 
Universal Space Lines and several sister companies. The visionary Pete 
Conrad recognized that it will be up to private industry to truly open 
the commercial markets of space, so he created companies to design 
reusable launch vehicles and build ground tracking systems, with the 
goal of making it easier, cheaper and safer to put people and equipment 
into space.
  Through my work on the Committee on Science, I had the pleasure of 
meeting Pete Conrad, as a matter of fact, most recently several months 
ago. I have always been impressed by the force of his personality. He 
seemed to exemplify the maxim of ``attitude is altitude.'' At 5 feet 6 
inches, Pete Conrad personified this quip with his eye toward 
enterprise and adventure.

                              {time}  1915

  Though highly regarded as a truly terrific pilot, he had a reputation 
as a jokester. Upon setting foot on the Moon, he cheered, ``Whoopee, 
that may have been a small one for Neil, but that's a long one for 
me.''
  Just last year he joked that he looked forward to his 77th birthday 
saying, ``I fully expect that NASA will send me back to the Moon as 
they treated Senator Glenn, and if they don't do so, why then I will 
have to do it myself.''
  The life of Charles P. Conrad, Jr., serves as an example of the 
patriotism and sense of adventure that sets the United States apart and 
makes us all, as Americans, unique. I am proud to have known him in 
life, I honor him in death, and I marvel, as we all do, at his legacy.

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