19 November 1969
Waxing Gibbous, 77% lit
Apollo 12 is struck by lightning. Twice.
The rocket triggered its own lightning strike 36 seconds after launch, and again at 52 seconds, knocking out the spacecraft's instruments.
A 24-year-old flight controller remembered an obscure switch from a test a year earlier and called "try SCE to AUX". Nobody on the flight deck knew what it meant, but it worked, and the mission continued to the Moon.
- Date
- 19 November 1969
- Moon computed for
- 06:00 local time, UTC
- Phase
- Waxing Gibbous
- Illuminated
- 77%
Source: NASA Apollo 12 mission report (opens in a new tab)