俄罗斯的火箭，刚发射就被雷劈了

The first launch this year of a Roscosmos Soyuz 2-1b rocket from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in Russia went off without a hitch. Yes, even despite a bolt of lightning that struck the booster as it made its ascent.

今年俄罗斯联盟2-1b运载火箭从俄罗斯普列谢茨克航天发射基地的首次发射非常顺利。的确非常顺利，尽管它在升空过程中被一道闪电击中了助推器。

At 06:23 UTC on Monday 27 May, the rocket lifted off to deliver a Glonass-M navigation satellite into orbit.

5月27日周一国际标准时间6时23分，该火箭升空将格洛纳斯-M导航卫星送入轨道。

Just a few seconds later, lightning struck - as seen in a video posted to T-witter by Roscosmos director Dmitry Rogozin.

仅几秒后，火箭就被闪电击中，俄罗斯联邦航天局局长Dmitry Rogozin在推特上发布了这一事故的视频。

"Lightning is not an obstacle to you," he said as he congratulated the flight team.

他对航天团队表示祝贺时说：“闪电并不能阻碍你们。”

But it didn't even slow the rocket down. It continued on its 3.5-hour journey to low-Earth orbit, where it delivered its payload on schedule. The satellite, according to the Russian Ministry of Defense, was absolutely fine.

闪电甚至都没有使火箭减速，火箭继续飞往近地轨道的3.5小时行程，将按照预定时间与卫星分离。据俄罗斯国防部消息，卫星情况良好。

"A stable telemetric connection is established and maintained with the spacecraft," an update from the Ministry's communications department said. "The on-board systems of the Glonass-M spacecraft are functioning normally."

国防部通讯部最新消息称：“已与航天器建立并保持稳定的遥测连接，格洛纳斯-M航天器上的控制系统一切正常。”

As we have learnt from decades of air travel, a big metal object in the sky is not immune to lightning. Lightning strikes are relatively rare during rocket launches, as these events are usually scheduled for clear skies, but they're certainly not unheard of.

数十年的航空经验告诉我们，空中的大型金属物体不可避免地会遭受闪电袭击。火箭发射过程中被闪电击中相对少见，因为发射时间通常会选在天气晴朗时，但此前也不是没有过类似情况。

The launch of the Apollo 12 mission aboard a Saturn V rocket on 14 November 1969 is a well-known example. The weather was cloudy, but not stormy; but, as the crewed mission launched, lightning unexpectedly struck the rocket not once, but twice.

于1969年11月14日发射的搭载阿波罗12号的土星5号火箭就是一个著名案例。当时多云，并没有风暴，但当载人航天器发射时闪电意外击中了火箭，而且不止一次，是两次。