On November 14, 1969, the crew of Apollo 12 rode a pillar of fire into a gray and rain-soaked Florida sky. Just thirty-six seconds after liftoff, lightning struck the massive Saturn V, knocking out power, blinding the instruments, and filling the command module with flashing warning lights. A second strike followed, threatening to end the mission before it had even cleared the clouds.
Inside the capsule, three Navy men—Pete Conrad, Dick Gordon, and Alan Bean—fought to make sense of chaos while Mission Control scrambled to understand what had gone wrong. Then a calm voice offered a strange instruction: “Try SCE to Aux.” With that single command and one quick hand on the right switch, Apollo 12 was saved.
This is the story of the launch that almost failed, the people who refused to panic, and the moment when quick thinking kept America’s second moon landing alive.
