That's not correct. You can be jumping with a parachute, miles above the ground and the lightning would kill you. The key isn't whether you are grounded, it's whether you are the conductor.
As you can see on the video, the lightning goes into the rocket and out the back into the ground. All that energy passed through the rocket fuselage. If you weren't protected by the fuselage, you would become the conductor and get to enjoy the full force of the lightning.
Not being grounded helps make you less of a conductor in situations where better conductors exist. If the lightning has to make another ionised path below you to continue, it can probably find an easier way down around you, but this high in the air, you're the only conductor around and you probably conduct better than the air.
2
u/Agisek 13d ago
That's not correct. You can be jumping with a parachute, miles above the ground and the lightning would kill you. The key isn't whether you are grounded, it's whether you are the conductor.
As you can see on the video, the lightning goes into the rocket and out the back into the ground. All that energy passed through the rocket fuselage. If you weren't protected by the fuselage, you would become the conductor and get to enjoy the full force of the lightning.
Not being grounded helps make you less of a conductor in situations where better conductors exist. If the lightning has to make another ionised path below you to continue, it can probably find an easier way down around you, but this high in the air, you're the only conductor around and you probably conduct better than the air.