Nov. 20, 1969: Apollo 12’s commander, Pete Conrad inspects Surveyor III. The Lunar Module Intrepid sits in the distance beyond the crater rim.

*****

Launched on April, 17, 1967, landed in the Moon’s Ocean of Storms three days later, the low-slung, open framed, three-footed Surveyor III has been asleep on the steep slope of a small crater, asleep since lunar sunset on May 4 of that year, asleep for 30 months, untouched except for stray particles of cosmic dust.  And now, on November 19, 1969, something is seeking it out, something like but unlike it, a golden gleam in the back sky, a spacecraft approaching just after dawn from the east.  A Lunar Module, a seeker named Intrepid carrying Pete Conrad and Al Bean.  It’s 3,000 ft. up and heading straight for the center of the crater in which Surveyor rests.   The seeker’s track begins to veer to the side, coming in and descending fast.   At 700 ft. altitude, the rate of descent slows — levels off at 500 ft..  Intrepid tilts back to slow its forward motion, tilting 30 degrees.  It passes just to the side of Surveyor’s crater, then wheels just beyond the edge of the rim.  Stops forward motion at an altitude of 300 ft. and begins a measured descent, it’s engine picking up dust, a thick storm of dust on the Ocean of Storms through which it descends toward the surface, a wind of dust that streams across the lunar surface, travels the 600 ft. distance to Surveyor III, rolls through it as if to awaken it, coats the once-white surfaces of the probe, turning it tan.

Dust, dust everywhere.

And a few hours later on November 19, footsteps and with every footstep a puff of dust, dusty boots that the next day will make their way to Surveyor III.