Which Apollo mission carried the first color TV camera to the Moon’s surface? Apollo 12 carried it during its lunar landing mission in November 1969.
Apollo 12 followed Apollo 11 with a goal of improving both landing precision and scientific work. Its Westinghouse color camera was mounted near the Lunar Module Intrepid and was intended to show astronauts Charles “Pete” Conrad and Alan Bean working on the surface.
The camera’s lunar broadcast ended almost immediately. While Bean was positioning it, he accidentally pointed the lens toward the Sun, which damaged the camera’s sensitive pickup tube. As a result, Apollo 12’s surface television coverage was lost even though the mission had carried the first such color system to the Moon.
The distinction matters: a color camera had already flown on Apollo 10, but it was used from the command module and did not operate on the lunar surface. Later missions introduced tougher equipment; Apollo 15 used an improved RCA camera with a lunar rover and remote control.