"Andi Kleen" wrote in message
...
Never mind, I should have read the paper to the end. It's listed
in an appendix as "Atlas G in 1987. Struck by lightning 57s in flight."
Pretty bad luck, I bet the responsible people felt rather cheated.

Pretty stupid people, if you ask me. It was raining so hard at T-0 that the
rocket could barely be seen on TV. At times the pad was completely unseen.
As you said, a lightning bolt hit it, the flight control computer had its
navigation scrambled. It commanded the engines hard over to steer it where
it thought it needed to go, and the ship came apart from the stress, just
before Range Safety pushed the button.

Weather constraints were revised immediately after. Imagine that.

-Kim-