Video: 'Apollo 12 Launch on TV with Jack King: "The Kennedy Launch Control communication", November 14, 1969' (launch at 21:55)

(Friday, November 14, 1969, 11:22:00 a.m. Eastern Standard Time/16:22:00 Coordinated Universal Time) — Apollo 12, carrying astronauts Pete Conrad, Richard Gordon and Alan Bean, blasted off from Cape Kennedy in Florida today in man’s second attempt to walk on another world — the Moon.

After being sent up during a rainstorm, the rocket was struck by lightning, 36 seconds into its ascent, and again 16 seconds later, experiencing electrical surges that shut down the computer for the fuel cells; fortunately, the main computer in the Instrument Unit “soldiered on without a hiccup.”

Inspections by the crew of the orbiter and the lunar module found no damage after the ship achieved Earth orbit.

A little more than an hour after reaching parking orbit, Apollo 12 fired its third stage at 2:09 p.m. EST to begin its four-day journey to the Moon.