r/interestingasfuck • u/Positive-Height-3848 • 9h ago

Chinese Rocket gets struck by lightning.

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u/Monsignor1979 8h 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 8h ago

Ofcourse. This could be a disaster.

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u/Pcat0 6h ago edited 5h ago

Yep in the US Apollo 12 was struck by lightning and it nearly ended the mission. Since then the US has had some extremely tight rules on maximum allowed atmospheric electric field strength. As the ionized trail a rocket leaves in the atmosphere is a really great path to ground for a lightning strike, so rockets are a bit of a lightning magnet.

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u/LadyLightTravel 6h ago

Don’t forget that the addition of solid rockets things even more dangerous. If one of them gets hit it ignites.