50th anniversary of Apollo 12

Itssoeasy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ySXVQmIStXc

Apollo 12 lifted off the launch pad today 50 years ago on a mission to build on the historic mission of Apollo 11 four months before in July, 1969. The crew were commander Pete Conrad, command module pilot Dick Gordon, and lunar module pilot Alan Bean.

The mission is known for many things including having a sitting president at the launch, and for making a very precise landing in the ocean of storms, but for most it's known more for the eventful liftoff and the first minute when the Saturn V rocket and it's plume passing through the very low clouds lead to it being hit by lightning twice. One of these lightning strikes travelled down the rocket and hit the tower.

The lightning strikes lead to the command module warning lights lightning up like a Christmas tree as the three fuel cells were shut down and losing the "8 ball"(attitude indicator) and caused mission control to get garbled info from the spacecraft. The EECOM John Aaron was on duty for the launch and he had remembered seeing a similar garbled display during a test where low power(as the batteries on the CM couldn't maintain the power of the fuel cells) on the CM occurred. The solution was to change the SCE( signal conditioning equipment) which converted the singles from the CM to readable data. It wasn't a new switch put into the CM for Apollo 12. It had always been there and had three settings(normal, off, and Aux). It had just never been needed before today 50 years ago.

He asked the flight director to tell the CAPCOM to tell the crew to "try SCE to Aux" which most on the ground and in the spacecraft didn't know what that meant. Alan Bean who was sitting in the right hand seat in the CM(which is where the SCE switch was) had remembered that call from a year before and knew where the switch was. So John Aaron and Alan Bean through quick thinking saved Apollo 12. Pete Conrad is the one who suggests they may have hit by lightning. The Saturn V IU which controls amongst other things the staging of the Saturn V during launch and the roll program which happens during launch was unaffected and so Apollo 12 kept flying during the on board confusion. The mission continued on once the spacecraft was deemed okay.

The LM "intrepid" containing Pete Conrad and Alan Bean touched down on the moon on November 19, 1969. A Colour TV was brought to the moon but was destroyed when LM pilot pointed in directly at the sun. Pete Conrad who was shorter than Neil Armstrong first words on the moon were "whooping. Man, that may have been a small one for Neil, but that's a long one for me" During the just over a day on the surface the Apollo 12 crew recorded parts of the surveyor 3 probe that had landed on the moon in 1967. Apollo 12 is also know for Conrad and Bean having some interesting additions to their checklists while on the moon.

The CM splashed down successfully on November, 24th, 1969.

Edit: I didn't realise that my part of the SCE to AUX was so long when I was writing it out. I Can't wait until Apollo 13 next April. That's my favourite mission and I may just have to put TL;DR at the end.

Capt'n Midnight

The Steely-eyed Missile Man