The Apollo 12 Lightning Incident: Fifty Years of Advancing the State of the Art

Less than a minute after lift-off from Kennedy Space Center on 14 November 1969, the Apollo 12 vehicle triggered two lightning flashes as it ascended through an otherwise non-thunderstorm cloud system. The flashes caused critical upsets in circuits, indicators, power, and telemetry which might have required the second Moon-landing mission to be aborted if not for the quick action of ground engineers and astronauts. The incident immediately spawned an enormous body of research, starting with discussions at the AGU Fall Meeting in December 1969, into exactly how to detect and avoid the cloud electrical conditions that might interact with rockets and their exhaust plumes to trigger lightning. In a series of brief talks, this session will discuss lessons learned, current best practices, and still-needed research to maximize launch safety and availability.

Type
Featured

Primary Convener
Maribeth Stolzenburg
University of Mississippi Main Campus

Chair
Maribeth Stolzenburg
University of Mississippi Main Campus