Comment by deadowl on 01/08/2014 at 14:45 UTC*

21 upvotes, 1 direct replies (showing 1)

Still trying to figure out the Apollo 12 Rum Incident

Found this[1] searching for "Apollo 12 incident" but it's probably not related.

1: http://www.universetoday.com/98484/this-day-in-space-history-apollo-12-and-sce-to-aux/

Edit 1: The lightning that struck Apollo 12 supposedly went all the way down to the launcher. I'm wondering ifRUM could be an acronym for something now.

Edit 2: It was called The Yankee Clipper and landed on the part of the moon called The Ocean of Storms.

Edit 3: There are transcripts here[2], but I can't find any specific mention of 'rum' or 'harpoon' in the first two (using Ctrl+F)

2: http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/history/mission_trans/apollo12.htm

Replies

Comment by [deleted] at 01/08/2014 at 14:51 UTC

33 upvotes, 2 direct replies

There's speculation over on explain xkcd that one of the Apollo 12 astronauts smuggled a bottle of Harpoon brand rum on board and brought it back. Randall might have inside knowledge of the incident from his days working as a NASA contractor.