I think the Space Shuttle is worth one billion dollars a launch. I think that it is worth two billion dollars for what it does. I think the Shuttle is worth it for the work it does.

In 1989 Conrad’s youngest son Christopher was stricken with a malignant lymphoma. The Great Depression wiped out the Conrad family's fortune just as it had those of so many others. He was buried with full honors at Arlington National Cemetery with many Apollo-era astronauts in attendance.

He set an eight-day space endurance record along with his command pilot Gordon Cooper on the Gemini 5 mission and commanded the Gemini 11 mission. Navy officer and NASA astronaut and during the Apollo 12 mission became the third man to walk on the Moon.