Meant to post this yesterday on the anniversary but I was lazy. 52 years ago on 14 November, 1969 Apollo 12 lifted off the pad and was hit by lighting 33 seconds then was struck again by lighting 52 seconds into the mission. While in orbit the Apollo 12 crew did an inspection of the spaceship and found no damage. They did have to bring the fuel cells back online though. Mission control feared that the lighting strikes might have damaged the explosive bolts that would prevent the parachutes deploying in their landing in the ocean, but did not tell the crew and let the Trans Lunar Injection proceed to the voyage to the moon. Apollo 12 returned to earth after a successful moon mission and splash down in the Pacific Ocean (parachutes deployed) on 24 November, 1969.
