Shortly after launch, Apollo 12 was hit by lightning, leaving John Aaron and rookie astronaut Al Bean to save the day. Fragment from the miniseries "From the Earth to the Moon".
This is why the hoax theories fall to pieces. Every other person says something different. You say they escaped, others say they were never there, others say they rode half way up, all the way up, or even went around Earth and just stayed there. They went to the Moon (and landed). They came back to Earth. The end.
That it was! Even with the loss of guidance data in the CSM, the Saturn V's guidance computer kept the flight right on the money throughout the entire event!
John Arron was also the man who sorted out the power supply issue during Apollo 13. Most at NASA felt he was the most capable flight controller they ever had
HomerThe Hogan A “rookie” astronaut is one who hasn’t been in space before. Bean replaced Clifton Williams, who had been selected as the original Apollo 12 Lunar Module Pilot and who was killed in an air crash in October, 1967. The Apollo 12 mission patch contains four stars: one each for the crew and the fourth for Williams. Bean’s second spaceflight was the second Skylab mission, which he commanded.
+HomerThe Hogan I think that's one of the problems with the movie "Apollo 13." They treat Swigert as a rookie know-nothing (even though Haise was also a rookie) who can't be trusted to dock with the LM; in reality, Swigert was presumably as well-trained on that as Mattingly would have been. It was just a way to dramatize something that wasn't really that dramatic. Rookie astronauts are not like rookie ballplayers.
Yes, Swigert was an expert on the CM; fully as knowledgeable as Ken Mattingly was. In fact, Swigert was about the only astronaut who specifically asked to be a Command Module Pilot. (The CMP, being the one crewmember who didn't get to land on the moon, was often seen as the less desirable job.)If the crew switch hadn't happened, Swigert would have flown as the CMP on Apollo 16, which is the mission Mattingly eventually got to fly on. (The backup crew usually sat out the next two flights then flew as the prime crew on the third flight after the one they had backed up.)
The failures resulted from the SCE (Signal Conditioning Equipment). The lightning knocked out the battery that essentially ran the fun computer..... I know silly name I'm giving it... but this processing source essentially told the three onboard what was malfunctioning. Without input from the SCE - every warning light on the damn spacecraft lit up. SCE to AUX was a switch that allowed the SCE to tap into an auxiliary battery. Now you know what he did. None of the two others knew where the switch was - only Bean. That's how many switches and things were on that spacecraft. Very complex thing.
If you watch the show "ER," actor Paul McCrain (playing Pete Conrad here and playing Dr. Robert Romano on ER) has a model of the Saturn V in his character's office. Nice touch, and subtle too. Thanks for posting this - great scene.
Heroes. How many of us, really, can imagine ourselves in there, and dealing with things so calmly...? I once had the luck to DREAM I was on a mission into space...and even in the dream, I realised I was truly scared. These people are heroes. God speed to them, and god damn those coward hoax theorists.
Just thought I would let you know... Mythbusters already proved that the moon landing could have only been filmed in space. Sorry to burst your bubble.... Actually I'm not sorry. KBye.
The Main Bus didn't actually fail, did it? As I understand, it was a short in the computer that basically made every following indicator down the line read as offline and thus trigger the malfunction panel. Switching SCE (signal condition electronics) to Auxilary shifts the flow of information to a different path, bypassing the short and giving accurate information.
@@k1productions87 The lightning strike knocked the fuel cells offline and the Command Module automatically switched over the the batteries that were to be used for re-entry. The lower battery voltage scrambled the SCE until Bean set the switch from "NORMAL" TO "AUX". All the data to Mission Control came back and they could see what happened. When the crew restarted the fuel cells and normal voltage was restored, the SCE switch was returned to "NORMAL". The Saturn 5 was flying on its own computer and had been unaffected by the lightning. The show added far more Mission Control dialogue about the cause and the remedy than actually happened. In the real mission, Flight Director Gerry Griffin - Apollo 12 was his first mission as Flight Director - asked John Aaron, "EECOM, what do you see?" and Aaron's almost immediate reply was "Try SCE to AUX". A year earlier, sitting at his console, Aaron had been monitoring a Saturn 5/Apollo test at the KSC and had seen a strange pattern of garbage data appear on his screen. It cleared quickly but it had caught his attention. On his own initiative, Aaron and some of his back room people worked out what had caused the strange data pattern and then they worked out how to fix it. So, a year later, during a real launch, Aaron suddenly saw the same garbage data appear and instantly recognised it. His "SCE to AUX" call saved the mission because Griffin was already considering an abort.
@@k1productions87 Yes. That's where I read about it. I also read about it in a few other books about the Apollo programme. It's a well-known part of the saga.
Great clip from a SUPERB miniseries. Really, I liked every episode and LOVED most of them. Some of the best shows ever put on television. -And I like how they're all about the Moon Missions, but all slightly different too. This one has Bean as the narrator. There's the one with the documentary crew. The one about the wives. And my absolute favorite, Spider, about the Lunar Excursion Module. (Or was that Lunar Module?) : D -If you haven't seen the series, check it out!
K1productions well that’s because they felt the Apollo 13 Hollywood movie with Tom hanks covered it from the point of view of the family and astronauts...
@@jimmy2k4o No, if they had focused on the families and even real reporters of the time, that would have been perfectly fine. BUT, their focus was instead on FICTIONAL people, Emmett Seyborne and the other NTC personnel, none of which existed in real life. They were all made up, and had no basis what-so-ever in actual historical events. They weren't even composite characters of actual people, no... they were complete fiction.
John Aaron went on to work out the power rationing regimen for Apollo 13, and the current-sipping power-on procedure top allow them to re-enter the atmosphere on extremely low power. Now he's a mayor!
@ApolloWasReal Another factor in Apollo 12 was the CSM's very high electrical loads during launch. The entry batteries were all on the bus, but silver-zinc batteries have a habit of sagging and recovering under sudden heavy loads. This reset the computer, tripped the SCE primary supply and tumbled the platform. Modern avionics are much less power-hungry and voltage regulation is easier. It wouldn't be too hard to design the system so nothing would glitch when suddenly thrown onto the batteries.
And there wasn't a storm. There were cumulus clouds.. and unfortunately enough electrical potential that when the Saturn V left it's trail, it was enough of a disturbance and conductive path for a strike to go downwards from the craft to the launch tower. NASA learned new stuff that day!
Great scene, but since it's my nature to be nitpicky I will be nitpicky: The color of the suit-helmet connection ring on Beano's suit is wrong. I know that in some of the press photos you would still see the occasional blue neck-ring, since the already made suits were still used as backup and especialyl as training suits but as far as I know, starting with A11 all the flight-suits had the adapted ventilation system and thus the red rings.
@malinwj Only one person on the ground really knew what to do and only one person onboard the spacecraft knew how to respond to it. The switch was over by Bean's shoulder so it was a good thing he remembered it.
John Aaron was the man after this. He had seen the same error code before in an early launch. Then he was called again to save Apollo 13 from running out of power. The history of the Saturn V is well known for pogoing as well. one reason the number 5 center engine cut off on 13's launch, to save the rocket from vibrating apart.
@mddelanoy I'd try to use a non-conductive optical cable for my umbilical line that would be inherently immune to EMI, glitches and lightning. Even if I had to use an electrical umbilical, I'd use multiplexing to minimize the wire count. I'd use differential signaling with transformer coupling and a screen wire for noise immunity and resistance to glitches and spikes. It wouldn't resist lightning as well as an optical cable but it would have a very good chance.
EECOM Officer John Aaron....NASA's Greatest Flight Controller, makes the legendary call... "SCE to Aux" (Signal Condition of Electronics to Auxiliary). Fortunately, Alan Bean knew where to find this obscure switch!!
Not to mention a massive mental complex wherein "knowing" that everyone else has "fallen for the story" means you get to be in on this very special knowledge and smarter than others.
I'm glad Conrad's crew didn't get Apollo 11, because without the eyes of history on them, they had freedom to really have fun and be themselves, and their mission was all the better for it.
@@rawyld Well... no one was gonna stop him, no matter which mission he flew :P One of the biggest historical missed opportunities of all time - imagine that once the first Astronaut on the moon looked out across the Lunar surface, and the whole world heard him say "this is so fucking cool" LOL
Good eye. In addition to his appearance here and in Robocop, actor Paul McCrane was in X-Files and also had a recurring role in ER. An interesting coincidence is that McCrane is a Philadelphia native, same as real-life Pete Conrad.
@mddelanoy It wouldn't necessarily be worse today. Here's what happened: the lightning current flowing down the outside vehicle skin induced a spike on an unterminated line on the umbilical plate that ended up firing the SCRs (silicon controlled rectifiers) used to detect and latch a fuel cell overcurrent condition. This disconnected all three fuel cells from the DC buses, and the batteries couldn't handle the sudden load without a big voltage sag. If I were designing such a system today, (cont)
See this is one of the biggest misconceptions, SCE to Aux didn't fix anything, the lightening strike scrambled Telemetry to mission control as well as knock the ( command module ) systems offline (the Saturn V's systems were unaffected). What SCE to AUX did was to Change the power source for the SCE (Signal conditioning equipment, basically sensors on lots of electrical system status) to a secondary power supply thus giving Mission control back their telemetry so they could see what exactly was happening
@columbusmozart John was but an integral part of the JSC team that dove into dealing with 13's issues. John Young was there, helping Mattingly and Aaron out in the simulator, he was a major key operator. The Systems team pitched in with power management and the LEM batts. They knew the LEM descent batts were going to blow due to hydrogen buildup, so they planned for that event. Actual launch footage was used in some of the scenes in the HBO series, Apollo 12 was one of them. Apollo 4 another.
Short story long: When the fuel cell buses tripped, the system fell back to aux power from the emergency batteries (one of the things that would end up causing the NEXT flight so much trouble). The problem is that the Signal Conditioning Equipment (SCE), which converts the various signals from onboard sensors into standard voltages the computers and telemetry monitors could work with, was primarily designed to work at full output power, however aux power was unable to provide full operating voltage. When the fuel cell bus tripped from the lightning hit, the drop in power left the SCE unable to function correctly, thus resulting in a lot of garbage telemetry data. The switch they flipped tells the SCE to run in a low voltage mode for when power is provided by the batteries. The only reason John Aron (ECON) even knew about this switch was due to having dealt with a misconfigured simulator in an undervoltage condition. In troubleshooting how to get the simulation working again, he found out about the function of that switch, and made sure to do some research on it afterwards. As for Bean, sitting in the right hand seat? He saw the switch in a different simulator a year or so prior, and just happened to remember it was there when it was called for.
@@dalethelander3781 Actually, incorrect. The switch was on the right 'wing', bottom row center, right where the show indicates. See this image here: airandspace.si.edu/sites/default/files/images/collection-objects/record-images/A19770320000CP03.jpg
@RCMan89 I think the footage of the Saturn V igniting and lifting off the pad is from the actual mission; at least it closely resembles the actual Apollo 12 launch films. Everything else, including the lightning strikes, is synthetic.
@malinwj Unless there was some other similar-sounding switch with which it could be confused there wasn't much of a risk here. But it might have helped the crew find the switch more quickly. SCE = Signal Conditioning Electronics. It's the box of circuitry that amplifies and scales the mostly analog telemetry measurements to a common voltage range (probably 0-5V) for the A/D converter in the telemetry encoder. Without it all their telemetry values were garbage.
that was close everyone else launches in a lighting storm but after 12 we don't. Al and John saved the day after 12 NASA declared that if there is 60% of lighting don't launch because those rockets can become giant lighting rods.
Would've been Sierra Charlie Echo then, using the NATO phonetic alphabet. :-) But they didn't say that, even if you check the real recordings or transcripts they just said SCE.
+where are the turtles The Saturn V was "rated for all-weather" like many if not most airliners are today. If it had been a matter of lightning hitting ONLY the rocket itself, and not being able to find a way to "ground" (and in this case I mean "Ground" as in an electrical grounding) then it would have had no more effect than lightning hitting an airplane that is properly insulated. The electricity has to have a path to the ground to properly discharge and do damage. No electrical "ground", then no effect. What they did NOT understand at the time was that the rocket EXHAUST had an ionization to it that would provide the electrical grounding! In effect, the combination of the Saturn V rocket itself, it's exhaust, and the METAL launchpad formed the biggest lightning rod of all time! No - they didn't figure that out until it happened. They accounted for everything but the exhaust. And when NASA saw what happened, they never tried launching rockets when the weather was bad ever again. All credit to the teams and companies that built the Saturn V though. The CSM got knocked offline, but the independent guidance package at the the forward end of the third stage (the ring of computers just under/behind where the Lunar Module was stored) was shielded enough that it didn't even notice the lightning strike and kept the entire rocket going in the proper trajectory even without input from the capsule. That's a hell of a tough ship!
+where are the turtles NASA did not learn from that either one other time. another good example of that is why in the F--- did NASA launch Skylab under almost the same weather conditions?
NASA did not put in the 60% Lightning Rule until after 12 this is why they do a weather report before every launch. if there is lightning you don't launch that is dangerous.
@Dilandau3000 In more depth he died from incompetant care at the emergency room. He had a torn aorta but since he was up and walking around they overloooked the life threatening injury and he was dead within hours. Mrs.Conrad used to and may still campaign for better emergency care. Goodness knows it's needed. But if Pete were going to have to leave us, I think on his Harley was a spirited way to go. He has the only colored memorial tree for Christmas, b/c he lived his life so colorfully!
@columbusmozart If you listen they do say "what?" a few times. They had there own jargon but it would've taken so long to say Sytems Command....I forget the rest! Love how Bean and Aaron saved the day!
Quite a memorable scene in Robocop, yes? I'm not sure I can recall a more gruesome demise depicted on the screen. McCrane kind of chewed up the scenery in that one.
@gtvideos100 In fact, the N1 was 5 metres shorter that the Saturn 5, but with a more powerful first stage - it had 30 first stage engines that developed between 4,600 and 5,000 tons of thrust - it depends of which authority you read. Because all 3 stages of the N1 used kerosene fuel, rather than the LH2 used in the second and third stages of the Saturn 5, its payload to orbit was less than that of the Saturn. Or would have been if it hadn't kept blowing up.
@EmpireLS56KW Fortunately, it was only the Command Module that was affected. The five F1 engines continued to operate normally. Must have been serious pucker time for those three astronauts, though!
they can't overcast yes rain no. heard of the 60/40 role? "if there is a 60% chance of lightning with a 40 foot cloud and a field mill you don't launch" . That rule has been in place since 12. which says if there is lightning or clouds you don't send a rocket up. it is dangerous to do that and it can cost lives.
You'd be surprised... You can listen to hours of genuine Apollo radio excerpts on Spotify, courtesy of NASA and this sort of thing (and Apollo "Tom Hanks" 13) are closer to the mark than one may think. But I do take your point.
from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang: ‘Well,’ said Commander Pott carefully, ‘I can’t exactly say, but sometimes, in the morning when I came back to get to work again, I’d find that certain modifications, certain changes.. taken place all by themselves during the night... You see all those rows and rows of knobs and buttons and levers and little lights on the dashboard? Well, to tell you the truth, I just haven’t been able to discover what they’re all for... She just won’t let me find out!’ SCE to Aux?
@twinturbonissan300zx, Fortunately, the experts in launch control knew just a little bit more than you think you do. The weather wasn't deemed too close to the launch window. You have to look at the big picture. There are excellent books available on the Apollo program. I recommend "A Man on the Moon" (Chaikin).
do u know anything about space travel? After being delayed for a while, they decided to launch on this day and they would have only been in the storm for about 3 or 4 minutes. besidesm they have an emergency escape plan if something terrible goes wrong as to somewhat abandon ship
My computer stopped working once. I tried SCE to AUX, and it was working again!
Steven Manning "What the hell is that?"
every computer should have that switch :)
Try boot2window. Always helps.
This is why the hoax theories fall to pieces. Every other person says something different. You say they escaped, others say they were never there, others say they rode half way up, all the way up, or even went around Earth and just stayed there.
They went to the Moon (and landed). They came back to Earth. The end.
Absolutely. Conspiracy theorists are idiots, no matter what they claim.
It's fortunate that the two strikes didn't trigger the EDS to abort automatically. Tough old bird, that Saturn V.
Also that the lightening didnt damage the parachute pyros.
@@HammerHeadGarage Or Trigger the Parachute Pyros... ehhh.
That it was! Even with the loss of guidance data in the CSM, the Saturn V's guidance computer kept the flight right on the money throughout the entire event!
BTW, when I bought my car, I tried to get SCE2AUX for my personalized plate. Already taken.
Good idea! I'm going to try to get that next time.
that's so good damn cool man
that sucks but good try though :)
That would have been a great plate!
SC32AUX????
7CE2AUX????
You gotta keep trying bro
John Aaron single-handedly saved this mission
kurtzdt51 and got the tittle of steady eyed missile man.
SCE to AUX!
+kurtzdt51 It's a good thing that Alan Bean knew where the switch was, too, if this was a time-critical situation.
John Arron was also the man who sorted out the power supply issue during Apollo 13. Most at NASA felt he was the most capable flight controller they ever had
Conrade was laughing for the rest of the launch after that.
Nothing like facing a fiery death too cause a laughing fit!
"I always imagined our crew Apollo 12 could have flown any mission as good as anybody else probably. Except 13." - Alan Bean. When we left earth.
"rookie astronaut" I wouldn't say any astronaut is a rookie, considering how long it takes to even be considered for training
HomerThe Hogan Relatively speaking he was though.
HomerThe Hogan A “rookie” astronaut is one who hasn’t been in space before.
Bean replaced Clifton Williams, who had been selected as the original Apollo 12 Lunar Module Pilot and who was killed in an air crash in October, 1967. The Apollo 12 mission patch contains four stars: one each for the crew and the fourth for Williams.
Bean’s second spaceflight was the second Skylab mission, which he commanded.
+HomerThe Hogan I think that's one of the problems with the movie "Apollo 13." They treat Swigert as a rookie know-nothing (even though Haise was also a rookie) who can't be trusted to dock with the LM; in reality, Swigert was presumably as well-trained on that as Mattingly would have been. It was just a way to dramatize something that wasn't really that dramatic. Rookie astronauts are not like rookie ballplayers.
Yes, Swigert was an expert on the CM; fully as knowledgeable as Ken Mattingly was. In fact, Swigert was about the only astronaut who specifically asked to be a Command Module Pilot. (The CMP, being the one crewmember who didn't get to land on the moon, was often seen as the less desirable job.)If the crew switch hadn't happened, Swigert would have flown as the CMP on Apollo 16, which is the mission Mattingly eventually got to fly on. (The backup crew usually sat out the next two flights then flew as the prime crew on the third flight after the one they had backed up.)
@@MarsFKA that two of the best missions you could ever get. First one landing on the Moon. Second mission flying to and commanding a Space Station.
The failures resulted from the SCE (Signal Conditioning Equipment). The lightning knocked out the battery that essentially ran the fun computer..... I know silly name I'm giving it... but this processing source essentially told the three onboard what was malfunctioning. Without input from the SCE - every warning light on the damn spacecraft lit up. SCE to AUX was a switch that allowed the SCE to tap into an auxiliary battery. Now you know what he did. None of the two others knew where the switch was - only Bean. That's how many switches and things were on that spacecraft. Very complex thing.
"First few moments after lift-off, you're vibrating pretty good."
That's what _she_ said.
This was an awesome miniseries. Well worth it to add to any DVD collection.
This was such a great series.....
And at that moment, John Aaron joined the ranks of Chris Kraft, Gene Kranz, and Wehrnher von Braun, and became a steely eyed missile man.
What about Bob Gilruth?
It takes a special kind of man to be a good EECOM
If you watch the show "ER," actor Paul McCrain (playing Pete Conrad here and playing Dr. Robert Romano on ER) has a model of the Saturn V in his character's office. Nice touch, and subtle too. Thanks for posting this - great scene.
Interesting to know this.
Nice
Heroes. How many of us, really, can imagine ourselves in there, and dealing with things so calmly...? I once had the luck to DREAM I was on a mission into space...and even in the dream, I realised I was truly scared. These people are heroes. God speed to them, and god damn those coward hoax theorists.
Just thought I would let you know... Mythbusters already proved that the moon landing could have only been filmed in space.
Sorry to burst your bubble.... Actually I'm not sorry. KBye.
This was the fastest main bus failure ever in Apollo history, faster even than Apollo 13.
The Main Bus didn't actually fail, did it? As I understand, it was a short in the computer that basically made every following indicator down the line read as offline and thus trigger the malfunction panel. Switching SCE (signal condition electronics) to Auxilary shifts the flow of information to a different path, bypassing the short and giving accurate information.
@@k1productions87 The lightning strike knocked the fuel cells offline and the Command Module automatically switched over the the batteries that were to be used for re-entry. The lower battery voltage scrambled the SCE until Bean set the switch from "NORMAL" TO "AUX". All the data to Mission Control came back and they could see what happened. When the crew restarted the fuel cells and normal voltage was restored, the SCE switch was returned to "NORMAL". The Saturn 5 was flying on its own computer and had been unaffected by the lightning.
The show added far more Mission Control dialogue about the cause and the remedy than actually happened. In the real mission, Flight Director Gerry Griffin - Apollo 12 was his first mission as Flight Director - asked John Aaron, "EECOM, what do you see?" and Aaron's almost immediate reply was "Try SCE to AUX".
A year earlier, sitting at his console, Aaron had been monitoring a Saturn 5/Apollo test at the KSC and had seen a strange pattern of garbage data appear on his screen. It cleared quickly but it had caught his attention. On his own initiative, Aaron and some of his back room people worked out what had caused the strange data pattern and then they worked out how to fix it.
So, a year later, during a real launch, Aaron suddenly saw the same garbage data appear and instantly recognised it. His "SCE to AUX" call saved the mission because Griffin was already considering an abort.
@@MarsFKA Much of that was described in "Failure is Not an Option"
@@k1productions87 Yes. That's where I read about it. I also read about it in a few other books about the Apollo programme. It's a well-known part of the saga.
Great clip from a SUPERB miniseries. Really, I liked every episode and LOVED most of them. Some of the best shows ever put on television.
-And I like how they're all about the Moon Missions, but all slightly different too. This one has Bean as the narrator. There's the one with the documentary crew. The one about the wives. And my absolute favorite, Spider, about the Lunar Excursion Module. (Or was that Lunar Module?) : D
-If you haven't seen the series, check it out!
Greatest HBO series ever. Probably my favorite episode of said series. I reccomend "From the Earth to the Moon."
The only downside is the Apollo 13 episode, focusing entirely on a fictional news studio rather than actual events. But the rest is great
K1productions well that’s because they felt the Apollo 13 Hollywood movie with Tom hanks covered it from the point of view of the family and astronauts...
@@jimmy2k4o No, if they had focused on the families and even real reporters of the time, that would have been perfectly fine. BUT, their focus was instead on FICTIONAL people, Emmett Seyborne and the other NTC personnel, none of which existed in real life. They were all made up, and had no basis what-so-ever in actual historical events. They weren't even composite characters of actual people, no... they were complete fiction.
Agree completely!
One of the best episodes was Apollo One.
Ron Howards Apollo 13 minus the lightning strike is the greatest apollo liftoff portrayal.
This is why aircraft and spacecraft have co-pilots.
John Aaron went on to work out the power rationing regimen for Apollo 13, and the current-sipping power-on procedure top allow them to re-enter the atmosphere on extremely low power.
Now he's a mayor!
These guys guffawed their way to the moon and I love it.
@ApolloWasReal Another factor in Apollo 12 was the CSM's very high electrical loads during launch. The entry batteries were all on the bus, but silver-zinc batteries have a habit of sagging and recovering under sudden heavy loads. This reset the computer, tripped the SCE primary supply and tumbled the platform. Modern avionics are much less power-hungry and voltage regulation is easier. It wouldn't be too hard to design the system so nothing would glitch when suddenly thrown onto the batteries.
Great Video , Love itt , Thankzzz .
And there wasn't a storm. There were cumulus clouds.. and unfortunately enough electrical potential that when the Saturn V left it's trail, it was enough of a disturbance and conductive path for a strike to go downwards from the craft to the launch tower. NASA learned new stuff that day!
well done...VERY well done...GO NAVY!
Great scene, but since it's my nature to be nitpicky I will be nitpicky:
The color of the suit-helmet connection ring on Beano's suit is wrong. I know that in some of the press photos you would still see the occasional blue neck-ring, since the already made suits were still used as backup and especialyl as training suits but as far as I know, starting with A11 all the flight-suits had the adapted ventilation system and thus the red rings.
@malinwj
Only one person on the ground really knew what to do and only one person onboard the spacecraft knew how to respond to it. The switch was over by Bean's shoulder so it was a good thing he remembered it.
That`s really something! It must be an amazing moment to meet a person that have walked on the Moon! I want to also :)
RIP Al Bean
this video is awesome
John Aaron was the man after this. He had seen the same error code before in an early launch. Then he was called again to save Apollo 13 from running out of power. The history of the Saturn V is well known for pogoing as well. one reason the number 5 center engine cut off on 13's launch, to save the rocket from vibrating apart.
I just wish John Aaron’s two major depictions had kept his Texan accent. :/
@mddelanoy I'd try to use a non-conductive optical cable for my umbilical line that would be inherently immune to EMI, glitches and lightning. Even if I had to use an electrical umbilical, I'd use multiplexing to minimize the wire count. I'd use differential signaling with transformer coupling and a screen wire for noise immunity and resistance to glitches and spikes. It wouldn't resist lightning as well as an optical cable but it would have a very good chance.
EECOM Officer John Aaron....NASA's Greatest Flight Controller, makes the legendary call... "SCE to Aux" (Signal Condition of Electronics to Auxiliary). Fortunately, Alan Bean knew where to find this obscure switch!!
Not to mention a massive mental complex wherein "knowing" that everyone else has "fallen for the story" means you get to be in on this very special knowledge and smarter than others.
Man I wish I knew that music, it is a great tune
Apollo 12 the most funniest mission ever, and my favourite.
I'm glad Conrad's crew didn't get Apollo 11, because without the eyes of history on them, they had freedom to really have fun and be themselves, and their mission was all the better for it.
@@k1productions87 Yep. Plus Conrad got to swear on the Moon.
@@rawyld Well... no one was gonna stop him, no matter which mission he flew :P
One of the biggest historical missed opportunities of all time - imagine that once the first Astronaut on the moon looked out across the Lunar surface, and the whole world heard him say "this is so fucking cool" LOL
@@k1productions87 That's true, he would gotten a big talking from Chris Kraft.
Good eye. In addition to his appearance here and in Robocop, actor Paul McCrane was in X-Files and also had a recurring role in ER. An interesting coincidence is that McCrane is a Philadelphia native, same as real-life Pete Conrad.
AMAZING
Awesome 😎
@mddelanoy It wouldn't necessarily be worse today. Here's what happened: the lightning current flowing down the outside vehicle skin induced a spike on an unterminated line on the umbilical plate that ended up firing the SCRs (silicon controlled rectifiers) used to detect and latch a fuel cell overcurrent condition. This disconnected all three fuel cells from the DC buses, and the batteries couldn't handle the sudden load without a big voltage sag. If I were designing such a system today, (cont)
"Houston to Apollo try CTL-ALT-DEL"
Sorry for the old comment but, this is actually how they sounded on the Black Box
It is even more fun to hear Pete Conrad break out into nervous laughter, laughing all the way into orbit
How's the food in Bellevue? Are you getting enough exercise?
Beans helmet is not completely locked at 0:32. Gordons and Conrads are they are wearing the red suits while Bean is wearing the blue suit.
R.I.P. Al Bean!
See this is one of the biggest misconceptions, SCE to Aux didn't fix anything, the lightening strike scrambled Telemetry to mission control as well as knock the ( command module ) systems offline (the Saturn V's systems were unaffected). What SCE to AUX did was to Change the power source for the SCE (Signal conditioning equipment, basically sensors on lots of electrical system status) to a secondary power supply thus giving Mission control back their telemetry so they could see what exactly was happening
The footage of the initial lift-off is real, Once it clears the tower, it goes to CGI.
But if people think the lunar landing is fake they r gay
That's the lightning striking the rocket.
@columbusmozart John was but an integral part of the JSC team that dove into dealing with 13's issues. John Young was there, helping Mattingly and Aaron out in the simulator, he was a major key operator. The Systems team pitched in with power management and the LEM batts. They knew the LEM descent batts were going to blow due to hydrogen buildup, so they planned for that event. Actual launch footage was used in some of the scenes in the HBO series, Apollo 12 was one of them. Apollo 4 another.
Awesome
P. Conrad must have nerves of steel for not using the abort switch.
Short story long: When the fuel cell buses tripped, the system fell back to aux power from the emergency batteries (one of the things that would end up causing the NEXT flight so much trouble). The problem is that the Signal Conditioning Equipment (SCE), which converts the various signals from onboard sensors into standard voltages the computers and telemetry monitors could work with, was primarily designed to work at full output power, however aux power was unable to provide full operating voltage.
When the fuel cell bus tripped from the lightning hit, the drop in power left the SCE unable to function correctly, thus resulting in a lot of garbage telemetry data. The switch they flipped tells the SCE to run in a low voltage mode for when power is provided by the batteries.
The only reason John Aron (ECON) even knew about this switch was due to having dealt with a misconfigured simulator in an undervoltage condition. In troubleshooting how to get the simulation working again, he found out about the function of that switch, and made sure to do some research on it afterwards.
As for Bean, sitting in the right hand seat? He saw the switch in a different simulator a year or so prior, and just happened to remember it was there when it was called for.
What this scene gets wrong is that Bean flips the switch on the main control panel. The switch was over his right shoulder on the "wall."
@@dalethelander3781 Actually, incorrect. The switch was on the right 'wing', bottom row center, right where the show indicates. See this image here: airandspace.si.edu/sites/default/files/images/collection-objects/record-images/A19770320000CP03.jpg
He died in 1999 from injuries sustained in a motorcycling accident.
@flatch0 The film is From the Earth to the Moon.
Was this an excerpt from a movie or documentary? What was the name and does anyone have a link to film?
@RCMan89 I think the footage of the Saturn V igniting and lifting off the pad is from the actual mission; at least it closely resembles the actual Apollo 12 launch films.
Everything else, including the lightning strikes, is synthetic.
@malinwj Unless there was some other similar-sounding switch with which it could be confused there wasn't much of a risk here. But it might have helped the crew find the switch more quickly.
SCE = Signal Conditioning Electronics. It's the box of circuitry that amplifies and scales the mostly analog telemetry measurements to a common voltage range (probably 0-5V) for the A/D converter in the telemetry encoder. Without it all their telemetry values were garbage.
@MrTadbob HBO miniseries: From the earth to the moon.
One of the best I've ever seen.
And then John Aaron was known as a STEELY EYED MISSLE MAN. Just like Chris Kraft, Gene Kranz, and Whernher Von Braun. Epic.
getting stuck by lightning... thats the time I piss my pants... again....
See why John Aaron is every engineer's hero?
that was close everyone else launches in a lighting storm but after 12 we don't. Al and John saved the day after 12 NASA declared that if there is 60% of lighting don't launch because those rockets can become giant lighting rods.
What movie was that?
Would've been Sierra Charlie Echo then, using the NATO phonetic alphabet. :-)
But they didn't say that, even if you check the real recordings or transcripts they just said SCE.
these rocket scientist couldnt figure to not launch during a lightning storm ?
+where are the turtles The Saturn V was "rated for all-weather" like many if not most airliners are today.
If it had been a matter of lightning hitting ONLY the rocket itself, and not being able to find a way to "ground" (and in this case I mean "Ground" as in an electrical grounding) then it would have had no more effect than lightning hitting an airplane that is properly insulated. The electricity has to have a path to the ground to properly discharge and do damage. No electrical "ground", then no effect.
What they did NOT understand at the time was that the rocket EXHAUST had an ionization to it that would provide the electrical grounding! In effect, the combination of the Saturn V rocket itself, it's exhaust, and the METAL launchpad formed the biggest lightning rod of all time!
No - they didn't figure that out until it happened. They accounted for everything but the exhaust. And when NASA saw what happened, they never tried launching rockets when the weather was bad ever again.
All credit to the teams and companies that built the Saturn V though. The CSM got knocked offline, but the independent guidance package at the the forward end of the third stage (the ring of computers just under/behind where the Lunar Module was stored) was shielded enough that it didn't even notice the lightning strike and kept the entire rocket going in the proper trajectory even without input from the capsule. That's a hell of a tough ship!
+where are the turtles NASA did not learn from that either one other time. another good example of that is why in the F--- did NASA launch Skylab under almost the same weather conditions?
NASA did not put in the 60% Lightning Rule until after 12 this is why they do a weather report before every launch. if there is lightning you don't launch that is dangerous.
The rule which shuts launches down in weather like this did not yet exist when Apollo 12 was launched.
Shadowkey392 but it went into effect after 12
NASA learned that after this flight. You don't send up a rocket when there is a 40 foot lighting cloud over launch pad that is dangerous.
Sweet whenever i watch this video makes me be more an astronaut :) is inspiring how this astronauts are so brave :)
Anyone who wants a defintion of "triboelectrifactipn" just needs to look at Apollo 12 :)
@Dilandau3000 In more depth he died from incompetant care at the emergency room. He had a torn aorta but since he was up and walking around they overloooked the life threatening injury and he was dead within hours. Mrs.Conrad used to and may still campaign for better emergency care. Goodness knows it's needed. But if Pete were going to have to leave us, I think on his Harley was a spirited way to go. He has the only colored memorial tree for Christmas, b/c he lived his life so colorfully!
Steely-eyed missile men
Well they didn't want to delay the launch and part of the idea of the Saturn V was that it could be launched in any weather
I think that they knew there would be rain, but they didn't know about the lightning
HOLY SHIT!
@columbusmozart If you listen they do say "what?" a few times. They had there own jargon but it would've taken so long to say Sytems Command....I forget the rest! Love how Bean and Aaron saved the day!
@RCMan89 The footage is all visual effects.
Just a clip from the HBO TV series "From The Earth To The Moon". Its a great series so everyone should check it out.
Quite a memorable scene in Robocop, yes? I'm not sure I can recall a more gruesome demise depicted on the screen. McCrane kind of chewed up the scenery in that one.
Why does this video keep showing up in my recommendations? 😂
Maybe because you are commenting on it.......
@gtvideos100 In fact, the N1 was 5 metres shorter that the Saturn 5, but with a more powerful first stage - it had 30 first stage engines that developed between 4,600 and 5,000 tons of thrust - it depends of which authority you read. Because all 3 stages of the N1 used kerosene fuel, rather than the LH2 used in the second and third stages of the Saturn 5, its payload to orbit was less than that of the Saturn. Or would have been if it hadn't kept blowing up.
@EmpireLS56KW Fortunately, it was only the Command Module that was affected. The five F1 engines continued to operate normally. Must have been serious pucker time for those three astronauts, though!
and where you from pardner
NASA learned their lesson that day you don't send up a rocket when there is a 40 foot lightning cloud over the pad that is dangerous.
but come on they should eventually try launching a rocket in overcast or rain again withe the right equipment this time though.
they can't overcast yes rain no. heard of the 60/40 role? "if there is a 60% chance of lightning with a 40 foot cloud and a field mill you don't launch" . That rule has been in place since 12. which says if there is lightning or clouds you don't send a rocket up. it is dangerous to do that and it can cost lives.
They should put this on the new crew space vehicles on spacex dragon crew capsule.
i remember listening to the original comunications, after that incident, conrad had get a laugh attack for days^^
Holy Crap
So they planned to launch the rocket in the storm? Or was the storm unexpected?
You'd be surprised... You can listen to hours of genuine Apollo radio excerpts on Spotify, courtesy of NASA and this sort of thing (and Apollo "Tom Hanks" 13) are closer to the mark than one may think. But I do take your point.
Is the footage of the lightning strike real footage from Apollo 12?
@RCMan89 Watht che Apollo 13 movie launch sequence and you will find them very familiar
It wasn't a night flight just a bit rainy but very windy, I personally think it's CGI.
2Gs for 2min 30sec 0 to 6000MPH, just on the first stage. I'd enjoy that ride.
from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang: ‘Well,’ said Commander Pott carefully, ‘I can’t exactly say, but sometimes, in the morning when I came back to get to work again, I’d find that certain modifications, certain changes.. taken place all by themselves during the night... You see all those rows and rows of knobs and buttons and levers and little lights on the dashboard? Well, to tell you the truth, I just haven’t been able to discover what they’re all for... She just won’t let me find out!’ SCE to Aux?
Damn
It must have been special effects since the rocket disappeared into the clouds not long after liftoff.
@twinturbonissan300zx,
Fortunately, the experts in launch control knew just a little bit more than you think you do. The weather wasn't deemed too close to the launch window. You have to look at the big picture. There are excellent books available on the Apollo program. I recommend "A Man on the Moon" (Chaikin).
do u know anything about space travel? After being delayed for a while, they decided to launch on this day and they would have only been in the storm for about 3 or 4 minutes. besidesm they have an emergency escape plan if something terrible goes wrong as to somewhat abandon ship
That was Allan Bean
Keep Calm and Set SCE to AUX