Photo: Dmitry Rogozin / Twitter
Time and time gain, rocket launches have proven to be risky propositions for those involved. Most of the time, dangers lurk within the rocket or launch process themselves, but at times outside elements conspire to bring such events to the brink of disaster. Or at least they try to.
On Monday (May 27), a Russian Soyuz rocket took off from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in Mirny, Arkhangelsk Oblast, carrying with it a replacement satellite for a navigation system. While on its way up to orbit, a lighting strike hit the rocket and you would have thought that was the end of it.
But, as Roscosmos director general Dmitry Rogozin said on Twitter, not even lighting is obstacle enough for Russian launch capabilities and technology, as, amazingly, the rocket not only survived but was able to see its mission through to the end.
The moment of the strike was caught on camera and posted online by Rogozin as a testament of what Russian tech and engineers can do. But truth be told, the Soyuz incident is not the first of its kind, and it will probably not be the last.
What’s more, when such a thing happened to the Americans, they had humans on board the rocket who lived to tell the tale.
In November 1969, the Apollo 12 mission launched from the Kennedy Space Center as the second crewed mission to land on the Moon.
Thirty seconds after launch, the rocket gets hit by a lighting and “everything in the world dropped out,” as the astronauts told mission control.
Going against popular wisdom, a few seconds later a second lightning strike hit.
Fighting common sense, astronauts chose to go on with the mission, which eventually managed to reach its destination and come back to Earth safely.
Videos of the Soyuz incident is attached below.
But, as Roscosmos director general Dmitry Rogozin said on Twitter, not even lighting is obstacle enough for Russian launch capabilities and technology, as, amazingly, the rocket not only survived but was able to see its mission through to the end.
The moment of the strike was caught on camera and posted online by Rogozin as a testament of what Russian tech and engineers can do. But truth be told, the Soyuz incident is not the first of its kind, and it will probably not be the last.
What’s more, when such a thing happened to the Americans, they had humans on board the rocket who lived to tell the tale.
In November 1969, the Apollo 12 mission launched from the Kennedy Space Center as the second crewed mission to land on the Moon.
Thirty seconds after launch, the rocket gets hit by a lighting and “everything in the world dropped out,” as the astronauts told mission control.
Going against popular wisdom, a few seconds later a second lightning strike hit.
Fighting common sense, astronauts chose to go on with the mission, which eventually managed to reach its destination and come back to Earth safely.
Videos of the Soyuz incident is attached below.
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