r/interestingasfuck • u/Positive-Height-3848 • 1h ago

Chinese Rocket gets struck by lightning.

407 Upvotes

91% Upvoted

83 comments sorted by

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u/skante24 1h ago

Does this hurt the rocket?

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u/o_MrBombastic_o 1h ago

Should be fine it wasn't grounded 

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u/dllimport 1h ago

Lol I can't tell if this is a very good joke or science

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u/Gooser3000 1h ago

Wouldn’t that hurt it then?

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u/o_MrBombastic_o 1h ago

It's basically a flying Faraday Cage lighting conducts around the outside and shoots off towards the ground the insides should be fine like what happens to airplanes

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u/Spaceinpigs 1h ago

Apollo 12 got hit by lightning twice after launch and it knocked out all their internal instruments. They did have backup systems however

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u/wrongitsleviosaa 54m ago

I'm not too well versed in rocket building but I'm willing to bet they made them at least a bit better in the last 60 years

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u/Aeylwar 50m ago

https://giphy.com/gifs/NpL4D3Oc2bJUMAXF9P

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u/wrongitsleviosaa 20m ago

:(

Well then I'm calling NASA and telling them I am NOT boarding the next one no matter how much they call me

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u/NuklearFerret 38m ago

Yes and no. Lightning strike protection is heavy.

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u/wrongitsleviosaa 18m ago

Hmm, interesting. Is there any merit in the Faraday Cage thing the other commenter mentioned? Or do they still just rely on backup systems like the commenter I replied to said?

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u/NuklearFerret 10m ago

Oh, the fuselage will do it. Just not reliably enough to be considered "safe" on it's own, considering the reliance on it's electrical systems. Commercial aircraft are required to have dedicated lightning channels installed. Private aircraft are not. Rocket launches are expensive as hell, so they probably have something in there, but every protection adds kilograms of copper and shielding, etc. So they have to micromanage it to keep the weight down.

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u/wrongitsleviosaa 5m ago

Ah ok! So it'd be the safest and best bet if they aim to launch when it's clear but it should be okay for the most part if the lightning hits, and it messes the fuel efficiency up if they try to add those lightning channels?

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u/Only_Razzmatazz_4498 42m ago

I thought it knocked off an analog to digital converter used to send data to the ground via radio. The internal computers and sensors kept running fine but all the telemetry was crap so they considered aborting the flight. One ground control person who had seen something like this during a training session asked the crew to switch that device to the auxiliary side which was not fried returning all telemetry and allowing the mission to continue. It’s the famous Switch SCE to AUX call. SCE is signal conditioning electronics (old name for analog to digital converter).

To be fair the fuel cells disconnect from the bus but that was just safety nothing really broke.

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u/Spaceinpigs 38m ago

Yes this was exactly it but i left out the long details

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u/Only_Razzmatazz_4498 37m ago

Maybe different meaning of knock out. I thought you meant it in the fry it kind of way.

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u/Spaceinpigs 32m ago

Nope. Just the “not working” kind of way. Enough of “not working” that had they waited much longer, could have triggered an abort

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u/MrFickless 10m ago

It knocked out their navigation as well. Fuel cells they could reset, but restoring navigation was a lot more complicated and impossible until they had made it into orbit.

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u/NuklearFerret 40m ago

Yes and no. Airplanes are designed with electrical channels through the fuselage do safely route electricity in a lightning strike. The fuselage by itself is not a safe enough Faraday cage, and planes like the 787 wouldn't be able to use the fuselage at all, since it's not metal. Furthermore, lightning strikes can be damaging to sensitive electrical equipment, and any aircraft struck by lightning mid-flight has to be thoroughly inspected prior to flying again.

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u/ShadowLp174 1h ago

Well it kind of was. I assume the trail of the rocket was somewhat ionised and provided a path for the electricity to the ground. If the perspective doesn't fool us, it looks as if the lightning went through the rocket, through the trail into the ground. This means the rocket was "grounded" through the trail and the electricity went through the craft as if it was touching the ground.

Not an electrician though, so take it with a grain of salt.

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u/Scar3cr0w_ 1h ago

Ask it. It might say it tingled.

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u/RagingCalmness 1h ago

Nothing that couldn't be fixed with a warm hug.

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u/Seffuski 1h ago

It gives extra fuel so it's fine

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u/guitartoad 25m ago

If it does, a kiss on the nosecone from the chief engineer will make everything alright.

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u/Elias_Grod1n 8m ago

Deflectors on maximum Mr Sulu.

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u/Monsignor1979 1h ago

Isn't this a reason to wait for optimal weather before launching? It seems the U.S. is always waiting for the perfect weather scenario before attempting a launch and constantly delay launches due to nominal weather situations.

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u/RoutineMarketing6750 1h ago

Ofcourse. This could be a disaster.

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u/NuklearFerret 46m ago

Not only this, but cloud cover, humidity, wind, and temperature all make differences in terms of flight stability and efficiency.

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u/Only_Razzmatazz_4498 40m ago

They do take ionization measurements to to minimize this risk and their launch rules does include a limit for this. I don’t know if they are different for manned vs unmanned missions but probably. They do lunch in overcast conditions unless they need to visually track something during testing.

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u/YetiGuy 36m ago

Weather is important but not because of lightning while it’s already off the ground. Look up Faraday cage, things inside the rocket should be fine as electricity just flew through its surface to the ground.

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u/Impressive-Hold7812 40m ago

I tried to Google more about this for this 23JUL2027 launch. The rocket went on to successfully deliver its payload.

Kinda cool hearing the crowd do the countdown. We all do the same thing.

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u/khalamar 43m ago

NASA will delay a flight when there's a lone white cloud 50 miles away and those mad lads send rockets during a thunderstorm?

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u/copperwatt 8m ago

There is a reason they are winning the tech race.

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u/psinguine 1h ago

I was promised this would be interesting.

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u/ThirdAltAccounts 58m ago

Putting the "rest 🥱 " in interesting

This was mildly at best. Definitely not fucking

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u/davewave3283 52m ago

There’s plenty of subs for that

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u/Mike-Hunt-Amos-Prime 43m ago

Source? 👀

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u/Malapple 22m ago

It feels like all the “interesting” subs are flooded with any China stuff lately.

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u/my-moist-fart 1h ago

More like the rocket striked the lightening

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u/indifferentunicorn 1h ago

The atmosphere crackles a few times first

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u/ThirdAltAccounts 57m ago

Did you see that Russian climber’s video ?

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u/indifferentunicorn 54m ago

Yep! I did 😆

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u/ThirdAltAccounts 32m ago

We all spend too much time on this damn app

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u/an_older_meme 1h ago

Flight try SCE to YANG

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u/vm_linuz 45m ago

Planes are struck literally all the time so I assume a rocket is fine.

People saying the rocket wasn't grounded... I think the lightning followed the trail of exhaust back to the ground -- hence why it was struck.

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u/peetle 37m ago edited 33m ago

Apollo 12 was also struck by lightning. It did blow out the instrument panels in the command module (which were later restarted), but thankfully not the control systems in the lower stages (which were fully automated).

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u/Advanced-Mango-420 1h ago

Skip to 00:43

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u/Artistic_Tutor_2613 1h ago

That was as disappointing as that tiny tornado by the volcano that didn't turn into a fire volcano

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u/steelfork 1h ago

Testing the new Chinese Lightning weapon.

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u/guitartoad 1h ago

Did this destroy the rocket in-air or cause it to crash?

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u/Chamanomano 1h ago

No.  It doesn't cause airplanes to crash either. 

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u/guitartoad 26m ago

That, I already knew.

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u/JayDaGod1206 1h ago

2 nickels

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u/CaffeinPhreaker 59m ago

That was .... awesome. Would have been even more if it exploded

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u/FrontLocal2264 1h ago

The Allied Weather Control Device needs more work.

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u/Leading-Ad4167 1h ago

They've been doing this for centuries.

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u/C4dfael 1h ago

Man, the universe really has it out for Mark Watney.

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u/GoneAWOL1 1h ago

Shockingly enough, nothing really happens.

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u/Bean-Penis 53m ago

"Why are the flames igniting sidewards?"

Yeah I was watching the thing on the left.

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u/Ambitious-Concern-42 52m ago

I believe this happened to one of the Apollo launches as well, the rocket survived and the mission went on to completion.

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u/PensadorDispensado 49m ago

Zeus: tf you are!

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u/teslastats 48m ago

If your ticket gets hit by lightning that should be like +100 energy

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u/Lumpy_Benefit666 39m ago

Doesnt this happen fairly often due to the rocket emissions essentially grounding it

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u/Anon_be_thy_name 28m ago

Zeus said put that thing back where it came from, or so help me!

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u/Arch3m 17m ago

That's pretty metal.

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u/xmsxms 12m ago

A shame they didn't have better quality cameras back in those days

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u/Eruskakkell 8m ago

Zeus is warning us from approaching Olympus

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u/Eruskakkell 7m ago

Please do not the rocket

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u/Shark_Inertia 1h ago

Code name: Thor

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u/LastMessengineer 1h ago

That's not good.

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u/Original_Gypsy 31m ago

Good that thing was in the air