Just today I thought, it’s almost the 50th anniversary of Apollo 12, isn’t it? So I checked. Yes. The launch, best known for lightning striking the Saturn V seconds into the flight, was 50 years ago today. It was fitting to celebrate Apollo 11 this year, but the other missions deserve a mention (and yet, I forgot Apollo 10).

It was a Saturday morning, so instead of cartoons — which is what I usually watched — I watched the launch. I didn’t think it was any less great simply for being the second try at a manned landing on the Moon. This video is roughly what I would have seen — minus any color at all — on our black-and-white TV, though it’s the raw feed to London. T-minus zero is at nearly 22 minutes into the video.

I remember the primitive animation that kicked in during all of the launches when the rocket was high enough. In the case of Apollo 12, that was after the rocket disappeared into the clouds, which was pretty soon. I also remember thinking about the fate of the cameras positioned right under the rocket during the launch. Were they completely destroyed, as you’d think, or shielded in some clever way?

Now I know: “The challenge of placing cameras under the F-1 engines was a team effort,” Space News says about the Apollo 8 launch, but the cameras — 37 and 39 — were there for each later launch.

“It included special help from Corning Glass to produce a port that would survive conditions worse than being on the sun. A thick cylinder of steel bolted into the Pad A concrete reinforcement was also built to hold the cameras.

“The project was accomplished successfully in a few weeks with only one problem: the ports had to be replaced for every launch. The black ceramic on the adjacent flame deflector vaporized and coated the surface – after they had done their job of providing a view like no other.”

Apollo 12 was eventful besides being hit by lightning — for the flawless LM landing on the Moon, the examination of Surveyor 3 by the moonwalkers, the reported camaraderie of the crew (as ably dramatized in From the Earth to the Moon) and the long-lasting package of experiments left behind.

A short video history of the flight by NASA.

Naturally, all this reading about space led me to recent news about the Artemis program. I hadn’t heard that NASA actually has a year in mind for a manned — make that woman- and manned — Artemis 3 landing near the south pole of the Moon, namely 2024.

Oh, really? The excited eight-year-old that watched the Apollo 12 launch wants it to be so. The late middle-aged man I am now is a little more skeptical. Has full funding for such a venture even been appropriated?

Besides, as I understand it, two missions on an as-yet unflown giant rocket — the dully named Space Launch System — have to go perfectly before a Moon landing: one without a crew, one with a crew, but not to the surface of the Moon. Well, maybe, is all I can say.

Except I can also say that Artemis is a good solid name for it. Sister of Apollo. None of this focus-group-style naming, which produces namby-pamby names like New Horizons or InSight. Orion is likewise a good choice for the capsule, since he hunted with Artemis — both were hunters — in Crete.

More likely to launch in the mid-2020s is Europa Clipper. That’s a good name, too. It has a very specific mission: find out more about the watery world of Europa.

“Scientists are almost certain that hidden beneath the icy surface of Europa is a saltwater ocean thought to contain about twice as much water as Earth’s global ocean,” NASA says. “It may be the most promising place in our solar system to find present-day environments suitable for some form of life beyond Earth.

“Slightly smaller than Earth’s Moon, Europa’s water-ice surface is crisscrossed by long, linear fractures, cracks, ridges and bands. The moon’s ice shell is probably 10 to 15 miles (15 to 25 kilometers) thick, beneath which the ocean is estimated to be 40 to 100 miles (60 to 150 kilometers) deep. Like Earth, Europa is thought to also contain a rocky mantle and iron core.”

The Ocean of Europa. Sounds like the title of story in a SF pulp from a bygone period. The 21st-century reality of exploring Europa is cooler by far.