Quick Thinking Saved Apollo 12 from Disaster

The Apollo program to land a man on the moon was one of the most complex projects ever undertaken. Virtually all of the technology to do it, from the Saturn V booster rocket, to the spacecraft and the entire infrastructure had to be developed from scratch--and in a very short time. It is a tribute to the dedication and skill of all of the professionals who were part of it. The Astronauts, Flight directors, engineers and scientists and technicians were all part of a team that functioned as one.

Apollo 11 had landed on the moon on July 20, 1969, thus fulfilling John Kennedy's challenge of "landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the Earth." NASA had been content just to have a successful landing on the Sea of Tranquility and get the three crew members back safely. 

Now Apollo 12 was going to try to make a pinpoint landing on the Ocean of Storms.  The landing would be close enough to the site of the unmanned Surveyor 3 spacecraft that had landed there two years before to enable the crew to retrieve the camera from it. Set to launch on November 14, 1969, it was an all Navy crew with Pete Conrad as Apollo 12 commander, and former Gemini 11 crewmate, and longtime friend, Dick Gordon as Command Module pilot. Allen Bean would accompany Pete to the lunar surface as Lunar Module pilot. All three men had been friends from the Navy.

But first, Apollo 12 was about to go through a storm much closer to earth that could have ended the mission.

It had been raining all morning and was still raining as launch time approached. It was no particular concern, since the Saturn V and Apollo space craft were well capable of penetrating clouds. 

"Ignition sequence start! six, five, four, three, two, one! All engines running! We have lift off at 11:22 AM!"

Pete Conrad called out "I got a pitch and a roll program and this baby is really going!"

Everything was normal for the first 30 seconds; Conrad reported that they were almost through the clouds and that the sky was beginning to lighten…

Then at 37 seconds into the flight, there was a bright flash. A distinct burst of static could be heard on the radio. 

Conrad: "What the hell was that…? 

What nobody knew at that moment was that the Saturn V and Apollo space craft had just become a giant lightning rod. A thousand amps had just coursed through the entire length of the Saturn V and its ionized exhaust trail. The power surge tripped the fuel cells off line. The Command module was now on battery power. 

Meanwhile, in mission control, telemetry data from the spacecraft was interrupted and Flight controllers had no idea what to do. There was silence from mission control for almost twenty seconds.

Conrad called, "we just had a whole bunch of buses drop out…" All Mission control could do was respond, "Roger."

Meanwhile the Saturn V and its control systems were unaffected by the lighting and the booster was pushing on to orbit, travelling 1,600 feet per second and accelerating.

A second lightning strike, knocked out the guidance platform.

"OK, we just lost the platform, gang. I don't know what happened here; we just had everything in the world drop out!"

"I got three fuel cell lights, an AC bus light, a fuel cell disconnect, AC bus overload, 1 & 2 and Main bus A & B out!"

Conrad's hand was on the Abort handle.

In Mission Control 24 year old Flight Controller, John Aaron was the EECOM (Electrical, Environmental and Consumables Manager) on duty. A year before, he had seen a similar pattern of anomalous telemetry readings during a pad test when the voltage was inadvertently set too low. He had discovered an obscure piece of equipment, the Signal Conditioning Electronics (SCE), that when set to the auxiliary position could restore the telemetry by allowing it to operate in low voltage mode.

"What about it EECOM?"

Everyone was expecting Aaron to call for an Abort.

Aaron called out, "Flight, try SCE to Aux". 

Flight director Gerry Griffin, his first mission as flight director, had no idea what that was, "SCE to off? "

"SCE to Auxiliary"

CAPCOM, Gerry Carr, relayed the instructions to the Apollo 12 crew, "Try SCE to Auxiliary, over!"

"What the hell is that?", responded Conrad. "FCE to Aux? "

"SCE, SCE to Auxiliary!"

But Lunar Module pilot and flight engineer, Al Bean knew what is was and toggled the switch that was in front of him on his lower panel. Immediately, Mission Control had the telemetry back and could see what the problem was.

"12, Houston. Try to reset your fuel cells, now."

Al Bean reset the fuel cells and everything began to come back on line. 

Conrad, said, "I don't know what happened, but I'm not sure we didn't get hit by lighting."

Dick Gordon, replied, "I suggest we do a little more all-weather testing!"

"Amen" replied Gerry Carr in mission control.

"Hey, that's one of the better Sims, I'll tell you!"

"We had a couple of cardiac arrests, down here, too, Pete!"

"There wasn't any time for that up here", Conrad responded.

Then he started laughing, "We're all chuckling up here over the lights; we said there were so many on, we couldn't read 'em all!"

So a very expensive Apollo lunar mission was saved, because of preparation and quick thinking. John Aaron took the time to understand the systems, and detail oriented Al Bean knew his space craft well enough to reset the obscure switch and restore power to the space craft.

Pete Conrad was a good commander; didn't panic under pressure and take premature action but waited for a solution. He knew how long he could wait. He didn’t take his hand off the Abort handle--but he also didn't use it.

The lesson for us as engineers is that lack of knowledge of our systems can keep us from making the right decision in a crisis. Also, taking action prematurely, can lead to the wrong action and damage or disaster. 

In my training as a pilot, I learned that preparation and thinking through scenarios ahead of time, prevented premature action and the tendency to panic in an emergency.

Pete Conrad always said, "If you can't be good, be colorful."  Pete Conrad was both.  

Pete and Al were a good team on Apollo 12, because Pete knew the big picture and Al kept the details sorted out. It worked well for them, three days later when they landed--with pin point precision--on the Ocean of Storms.