Information That Saved 4 Million Dollars and the Lives of 3 Astronauts

56 years ago, when the spacecraft planned to land on the Moon was launched one unfortunate event after another happened. Electrical systems collapsed when lightning struck the spacecraft.

One of the astronauts on the team remembers a procedure from his lecture notes. both the lives of astronauts and the $4 million spacecraft survived.

In 1969, very dangerous moments occurred during the takeoff of Apollo 12.

Apollo 12 was scheduled to take off on November 14, 1969. The weather conditions were pretty bad that day, but NASA ignoring warnings He maintained his decision to send the spacecraft.

37 seconds after takeoff, the vehicle to the V rocket The first lightning struck. With this lightning, the rocket’s fuel cells, electrical systems and other important systems were disabled. The second lightning struck 16 seconds after the first lightning strike, and as you can imagine, more systems were affected.

The crew inside the spacecraft were cut off from access to critical information.

In the rocket; There were 3 astronauts named Charles Conrad Jr., Alan L. Bean and Richard F. Gordon. Amidst the rush and broken systems, They were confused about what to do. Because the command module’s indicators were broken, they could not access the most critical information.

This is where Astronaut Alan Bean came into play. After being struck by lightning, a flight controller named John Aaron from Ground Control (Mission Control) “SCE to AUX” He asked him to turn the (Signal Conditioning Equipment – Auxiliary) switch.

Alan Bean remembered the instruction from the controller thanks to his lecture notes.

The meaning of the “SCE to AUX” command was to put the signal processing equipment in the vehicle into backup mode. Alan Bean, immediately followed the procedures he remembered and thus the electrical systems were able to become normal again.

Thanks to this critical move, the Apollo 12 team was able to continue their mission and successfully land on the Moon. Alan Bean’s recall of training and procedures 4 million dollar spacecraft and 3 astronauts lost their lives That’s how he saved it…

Let’s take it space enthusiasts: