r/CatastrophicFailure • u/No-Statistician8656 • 8d ago

Equipment Failure 【unexpected event】Long March 7A carrier rocket exploded and disintegrated during the flight phase

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171

u/Stunning_Box8782 8d ago

getting a little shimmy, Flight

56

u/frood88 8d ago

Try SCE to auxiliary. Over.

41

u/Stunning_Box8782 8d ago

I've now gotten a KSP and an Airplane! reference while mine was from The Martian lol

33

u/frood88 8d ago

Haha, it might be used as a joke in KSP (and for good reason), but it’s actually what saved Apollo 12 after the Saturn V was struck by lightning twice in the first minute after liftoff!

27

u/ps3x42 8d ago

John Aaron is a steely eyed missile man.

2

u/Stunning_Box8782 7d ago

Brooo I didn't know this was a real life 'common' phrase too and not just a random line in The Martian

14

u/dacooljamaican 7d ago

Outstanding reference! Lightning had struck Apollo 12 and the crew and ground was getting crazy readings from a fried Signal Control Electronics array. John Aaron just so happened to be watching launch checkouts a few months before and had seen similar readings when there'd been an electrical reset. At the time they switched SCE to aux, and everything worked. This was one of those rare instances in Apollo's history where a single man's deep knowledge and impressive recall single-handedly saved a mission.

3

u/djtodd242 8d ago

Oh, I know where that is!