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From: mosley@peyote.cactus.org (Bob Mosley III)
Newsgroups: sci.space,sci.space.shuttle
Subject: Re: Apollo 12
Keywords: Lightning
Message-ID: <697@peyote.cactus.org>
Date: 7 May 90 07:23:55 GMT
References: <1990May6.200451.7563@uokmax.uucp>
Organization: Capital Area Central Texas Unix Society, Austin, TX
Lines: 17

In article <1990May6.200451.7563@uokmax.uucp>, jabishop@uokmax.ecn.uoknor.edu (Jonathan A Bishop) writes:
> 
>      Lately, I've been wondering something.  Why was the decision made to
> launch Apollo 12 in a thunderstorm?  A Saturn V is probably the world's
> biggest lightning rod; we seemed to be inviting a strike.  Was it the last
> launch window for a month or something?

...as I recall, it was the last launch window for the DECADE. The decision to
launch despite the weather came down from high up (read: The Trickster) as
a way of adding insult to injury towards a certain Communist government
over who beat who to the moon first.

...The next launch window was sometime in March of 1970, which I believe
was the window that Apollo 13 used.


								OM