Apollo 12: A Heartstopping Launch

[charliegoodboy]

I am pleased to announce that the Moon Hoaxer Movement is dead, save for a few lingerers, and most of them are teenagers who will eventually receive an education. The majority of the last adult holdouts are foreigners with weird accents and a taste for unusual foods

[giannivee1]

I bet Pete Conrad's pucker factor was at Max Puck on that one. Flyihng on the world's largest rocket and it gets struck by lightning...ha ha...they were a brave bunch of guys. W really don't give them enough credit. Sadly we lost Pete a few years back, died on a motorcycle, If i remember the news wires correctly. Survived a moon rocket, dead on a motorcycle...something to think about. Thanks Gianni

[irish89055]

doesn't sound like a Jack King Apollo launch commentary... launching in that weather was up there with the Challenger stupidity

[jakfuki]

Another good argument showing that the Apollo spacecraft was/is the safest ever,and it's not bad for making a pitstop at the moon. Hell, the shuttle would have been reduced to nothing if it had ever been hit by lightning (unless I'm mistaken). Apollo is still better than anything the Russians ever built. I mean, after putting twelve men on luna firma, nobody else's rockets can touch that feat.

[GGE47]

They never tried that again.One other thing went wrong.Alan Bean pointed the tv camera into the sun as they were taking it from the LM to set it up on a tripod and it burned out the lense.No more tv after that and it was in color.At least I saw Pete Conrad take his first step on the moon.He jumped over the footpad fraom the first rung of the ladder and just about fell down.He said"That might have been a small one for Neil but it was a big one for me."

[Thinkcity]

Where are all you "hoax" and "fake" commentators? Shouldn´t you be here with your silly "fake launch", "fake thunderstorm", "fake lightning", "fake Apollo program" comments?

Hey guys, where are you? Please post something - I need a good laughter.

[McChuugy]

Did they launch at night?

[roamingcroat]

@McChuugy It was 4 PM in November, so it was late afternoon, but before sunset. They launched in a pretty bad storm, and if you look at news footage from the launch, it was quite cloudy, so I think that's why it looks dark. Apollo 17 was the only Saturn V night launch.

[thevmanvj]

Afterthought: Poor Gerry Griffin (Flight Director) must have been sweating bullets. It was his first mission as "Flight".

[thevmanvj]

Apollo 12 was hit by not one, but two bolts of lightning, which rode all the way down the spacecraft's Liquid Oxygen vaportrail to the tower...knocking all their main electrical circuits and telemetry offline. EECOM, John Aaron makes the legendary call...."Flight, tell 'em to take the SCE to AUX' (Signal Condition of Electronics to Auxilary).

[wafu1975]

All Navy Crew on this baby. Precision flying at it's best by Conrad, Gordon and Bean. Thanks for the memories.

[tpsossff]

that is a night time take-off.

Sorry but that is Apollo 17 not 12

[nesokretep]

@tpsossff -- No. I think this is 12 ... featuring the first of 2 lightning striks at the 0:22 mark on this video.

[Kauwhaka]

@tpsossff It was definitely Apollo 12 that was hit by lightening.

[TheSpiritof1969]

@Kauwhaka

I know it was apollo12 but the film looks like a night launch.

[youvebeenthunderstru]

The "I'm not sure we didn't get hit by lightning" wasn't said until after they stabilized the spacecraft - it's been edited here so that it's out of place compared to the original transcript.

[apollowoman]

I saw an interview with Pete Conrad and he said that the Saturn V was generating its own lightening. FREAKY!

[kslifer1066]

my mother knew neil armstrong the first man on the moon

[davehutchinson67]

@kslifer1066 I always have heard that Neil Armstrong is one of the most modest people you will ever meet. Never took any accolades outside of his parade with the other Apollo 11 astronauts. Amazing isn't it. Such humility in the face of such an Earth shattering moment..(quite literally).

[giantbluemarlin]

@davehutchinson67 Cannot speak for his modesty because he is well known to be one of the most PRIVATE people you will ever meet. There is a difference. He may also be super modest, but he keeps it private.

[Blabist]

my dad knows a guy who was on that apollo 12. which is Alan Bean, Alan bean is who he knows.

[Blabist]

my dad knows alan bean the 4th man on the moon! He was on this rocket

[kurrentessa]

my grandad was friends with John Glenn .

[tracyterry]

it would happen to that goofball Conrad

[TennisUK11]

@tracyterry yep!!!...why wasn't he first on the moon, he would have given us a something to remember! I remember an interview when someone asked him what it was like to stand on the moon...he answered "Super, really enjoyed it!" LOL. He had the right stuff before they had a name for it.

[NielsShoe]

Well everytime they launch the shuttle they have NASA staff at the top of the tower throwing cunks of insulation foam at it as it takes off. It's what NASA staff are into they like to make it more dangereous

[Ferrariman60]

Is this from an old Apple CD called Apollo Interactive?

[skypelt]

They had their hand on the abort, and wanted to do what they could to save billions of tax dollars and have their places in space travel history. Had abything else gone wrong they probably would have aborted.

[britoca]

watch?v=eWQIryll8y8

[EndeavourLaunch]

Well, its kinda obvious that they knew how to fix it. SCE To AUX.

[dave46563]

And if I remember it was a certain man called John Aaron who told them to switch SCE to AUX. Some people did not even know where the switch was in the CM. Aaron also played a big part in bringing Apollo 13 back in April 1970.

[Rhenoism]

Hey, he said it right this time.

"All engines running!"

[nascarfan1444]

conrad made a good choise not to abort he had is and on the lever all the time but never activated the abort

[thehoaxbuster]

Al Bean SAVED Apollo 12

[Superedit]

No, it was John Aaron, the EECOM, who told FLIGHT to have Bean switch telemetry to a backup system after the lightning hit.

[hardakml]

...and became ever thereafter a "steely-eyed missile man". See Gene Kranz' book for details.

[thehoaxbuster]

True enough, but neither Pete Conrad or Dick Gordon knew what the hell S.C.E. to Auxilary meant. The EECOM's information would have been useless had Bean not known where the switch was. Don't get me wrong, John Aaron is really a stud, but Bean deserves some credit.

[joachim2464]

SCE to AUX hehe

[Hairysteed]

"Hey, I know what that is!" :D

[joachim2464]

have seen the hbo series from the earth to the moon, hehe

[Hairysteed]

Yeah, Love that series! ;D

[crcsdogs2296]

They were kinda dumb to launch in a thunderstorm, but they didn't know then what we know now.

[denelson83]

Video isn't loading.

[Zoomer30]

They would not lauch in a T-Storm. It was a steady rain but otherwise seemed safe. What happened was as the SatV entered the cloud it "grounded" the cloud via the nice exhust trail coming out the back of the rocket. Provided a nice easy path to ground.

THis is one reason NASA is VERY touchy about lauchng into clouds (dont ask about STS 51-I that one was nutzo)

[airdriver]

The only reason why Apollo 12 launched in the rain was because president Nixon was watching the lift-off in person at the Cape.

[BigBill783]

SCE to Aux=Signal Conditioning Equipment to Auxilary

[thehoaxbuster]

Thanks i was still curious about that.

[openandskeptic]

They're afriad to launch that albatross known as the Space Shuttle if there's the slightest hint of drizzle. Yet a Saturn 5 rocket launched Apollo 12 in heavy rain, gets hit by lightning, and they don't abort the mission. The cancelling the Saturn 5 program was the biggest blunder in the history of the US space program.

[Ladco77]

The weather constraints on Shuttle are more for landing than launch. If they have to abort, they need the weather to be suitable for landing at the abort sights, including KSC.

[Superedit]

Also, high moisture content in cloud cover acts like sandpaper on the Shuttle tiles.

[EGMAG]

openandskeptichit by lightning, don't abort the mission. <<

Still they make it to the moon and back? Well HAPPY HORSESHIT.

[anime2eternal2fan]

yea thats right there was a lighting storm during this, im doing a report on alan bean he was on the apollo 12

[EGMAG]

anime2eternal2fan im doing a report on alan bean<<

Better yet report on Beans interview when he had no idea where or what the Van Allen Belts were. A trained astronot how hilariously funny!

[SCE2AUX]

Sure, I'm here.

[tehkick]

rofl

[appeals2me]

Way to go, Beano!

[mxg75]

What, no SCE to Aux?