6:00 PM Italian time: Apollo 12 (Saturn V SA-507): Thirty-six seconds after launch, a bolt of lightning strikes the Saturn V and the launch tower through 2,000 meters of ionized gas; the CM computer shuts down to protect itself; 52 seconds after launch, a second bolt disables the inertial platform; Alan Bean on the Saturn V begins reading all the alarms he sees, one by one: in front of him, practically all the alarms are lit up like a Christmas tree; conversely, at Mission Control in Houston, the monitors are giving no indication whatsoever; only the quick thinking of flight controller John Aaron, who recalls a similar situation from a simulation a year earlier, resolves the situation: he orders the AUX switch to be flipped, the existence of which no one but himself remembers; the Saturn V responds: “What the hell is AUX?” (It would be the guidance system, the IU, of the Saturn V, redundant with that of the CM and the LM) Once the problem has been solved, the Mission Control headphones hear Pete Conrad laughing, thus venting the tension of the previous minutes; he will continue to laugh until the launch.
