IIRC the exhaust trail aftera a rocket is actually ionised and efectively grounds the rocket in flight, creating a giant lightnjng rod. This was discovered duri

IIRC the exhaust trail aftera a rocket is actually ionised and efectively grounds the rocket in flight, creating a giant lightnjng rod. This was discovered during the Apollo 12 launch and caused serious but thankfulyy not fatal issues. Since then people are rather careful about preventing launches if lightning danger around the launch area is too high.