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John Aaron is a legend at NASA...................he was also instrumental in solving the power issue regarding Apollo 13 and powering up the CM . A TRUE steely eyed missile man.
"missile men" was also a term used to describe WW2 RAF pilots whose specific task was to dive their Spitfires from a great height to gain enough speed to catch incoming German V-1 missiles and then nudge the missile off course with their wingtips.
You can find the “flight, try SCE to aux” audio on RU-vid. It is amazing. You can hear the flight crew say “what the hell is that?” and laugh VERY nervously as the mission was saved. Worth a Google.
@@alexanderhilary mmmm, shepard’s pie... i believe it’s hard to screw up shepard’s pie, solely based on the fact that every time i’ve ever had it it’s delicious
Even though it never really happened as they showed in the movie, I still love that scene. If I remember it right, it was literally one dude who figured it out on his drive to the NASA office. Would've been less dramatic that way.
“Aaron’s role is assigned to Ken Mattingly, portrayed by Gary Sinise” John Aaron is portrayed by Loren Dean in Apollo 13. Between him, Mattingly, and John Young, they represent many other astronauts and flight controllers that helped plan the startup sequence. Normally I don’t comment on videos and point out mistakes, but I make an exception today because, well, these people are heroes :-)
We used the term POG in the Army. It mean Position Other than Grunt. The term Fobbit grew in popularity after the Lord of the Ring movies. Fobbit being a mix of Hobbit and FOB (Forward Operations Base). Someone who never left the FOB, someone who didn't do patrols or actual boots on the ground missions, was a Fobbit as Hobbits rarely left the Shire.
Another phrase, supposedly from a steely-eyed missile man to a bartender: "I've burned more alcohol in ten seconds than you ever pushed across this lousy bar."
The engineers at Grumman Aircraft, the company that designed and built the Lunar Module, were busy day and night trying to explain to the atronauts how to reconfigure the LEM for a job it wasn't designed to do, and we know they succeeded. I happened to be working in Building 13 at Grumman at the time, but I was not part of the engineering group.
You need to look up Margaret Hamilton. She was the one who designed the Apollo 13 Flight computer so that that it would prioritize the landing radar. Steely eyed missqle man could not had made his quick judgement without the safety conscious computer engineer.
Yes but he came up with the idea. If we have to list everyone that cooperated to make the mission, or indeed space flight, possible, this is going to take awhile.
when your job involves climbing into one of the early explodey rockets and blasting off into space, the phrase has merit. They hoped everything was fixed but they knew things would get through.
It's always good to remember the nerds (I say that word in the kindest possible way) that organized these space trips and made them possible in the first place. The astronauts risked their lives, but without the minds on the ground they wouldn't have gone anywhere.
@@rickbruner5525 At this point you are probably right. His social/financial antics have placed him well outside that envelope. I will not attempt to apply any kind of label since GoogleToob will probably strike it so you are welcome to use your imagination.
it was actually a bit more complicated than just a single switch, but it actually did work because it freed enough voltage for other systems to restart fully, allowing for the entire system to be brought up to power again. Scott Manley has a video explaining entirely on what happened
3:33 - "Wind speeds of 150 knots or 280 kmph" - Hang on there, where were these wind speeds encountered?! Certainly not ground level - that would have scrubbed the launch. The surface wind speed for the Apollo 12 launch was 12 knots gusting to 19 knots.
Those are Category-5 hurricane wind speeds. That wouldn't have just scrubbed the launch - it would have scrubbed much of the launch complex from the state!
Those where the max speeds clocked during the ascent, not surface conditions. It’s the highest upper atmosphere wind speed clocked during a launch. Current conditions requirements would not have allowed this launch as we no longer allow launches with lighting within 10 nautical miles.
I had a OFM (One F***ing Minute!!) moment myself, but not being an expert on NASA procedures, I was reluctant to express myself; thanks for backing me up.
I learned that phrase by watching Apollo 13 and ever since I have called people that when they have come through on something that was very difficult to do. I never knew it was actually used in that capacity.
They used it in the movie apollo 13 too. The man who created the rig that allowed a square oxygen filter to be placed into a round oxygen filter hole was awarded this title period though I will be honest I have forgotten his name.
One partial addition and one partial correction: Partial addition: In one early launch attempt, controllers were left with the decision to re-attempt launch or not, but the decision all hinged on whether a cable to the rocket had disconnected in the failed attempt moments ago. Someone did volunteer to go out to the pad to look up the ass end of a fully fueled rocket to determine if the cable was still connected. This may be a slightly different candidate, but it bears consideration. As for American launch countdowns, the origin as described here is correct, but the need for a countdown is definitely not cosmetic. Mercury was probably all by hand, but by the time we hit Apollo, it required a roomful of mainframe computers to implement the sequence of launch checks and launch vehicle commands at a speed and complexity only a computer could handle. This was non-trivial and took time, so "pushing a launch button" was now replaced with a timeline, and therefore a countdown. history.nasa.gov/computers/contents.html covers more of the details, though is rather thin regarding the actual launch computers.
My first response to the question was; "I don't know. I've never heard it before, and why would I care?" ...but..... it's Simon so there must be something interesting about it....
Uh... John Aaron was not rolled over into Gary Sinise's portrayal of Ken Mattingly. He was played by Loren Dean, and it was shown in the film that John Aaron was who suggested conserving all power.
Great video Simon. Not sure how Gene spelled it, but POG is a military term meaning Primary specialty Other than Grunt. In other words, people that sit behind a desk and panic of nothing for a living while the grunts get the work done. It's a good idea to keep the POGs away from the grunts
Pogue... longer version version of POG. An army/marine insult for anyone in a non frontline role: personnel other than grunt (grunts apparently cannot spell). Similar names include REMF (rear echelon mother f**ker) and fobbit (portmanteau of FOB, forward operating base, and hobbit, mythical creature known for never going out into the wider world). Remfs never get close to the action being assigned dozens to thousands of miles away. Fobbits are closer... they are assigned to the combat zone but never leave base. MSgt Pogue (though not a remf or fobbit), retired
"Person other than grunt," is a back acronym, presumably invented by grunts that wanted to avoid getting punched in the face when asked what it means. The real meaning is homosexual and comes from the Irish word for kissing.
Great video (as always). I started watching NASA launches at age 2 with the first Mercury launch. I was hooked from then on. The sixties were a great time to grow up. Back then, the 3 major networks had launch to splash down coverage.
In the US military, "pogue" is a derisive term for anyone who is deemed useless or lazy. According to wikipedia it originates from "POG" meaning "person other than grunt". A grunt is an infantryman, which is considered the toughest job in the military. "Poguey bait" is snack food or junk food, the kind of food fat lazy good-for-nothings eat while grunts are busy training for war.
My father was a SAC in Texas, during the Persian Gulf. His job sounded cool, and he had fun stories from those days, but due to some gas leak, it blew a decent 5ft hole of concrete and steel rebar in said silo.
I spent years as a Steely-Eyed Missile Man, I built the bombs for the darn things...great job...BTW, it's not S-A-C, it's pronounced SAC, one syllable....Peace Is Our Profession, War Is A Hobby.
Within SAC, it was simply pronounced like "sack." In the other major commands of the Air Force, it was known as "Silly-Ass Command" because of all of their additional regulations above and beyond Air Force regs. AFLC 1984-1988
Haven't watched it yet, but it probably helps to realize that the early days of rocket development in the US were largely done under U.S. Air Force auspices, and of course, some of our best early boosters were directly stolen from ICBM kit. I'm certain NASA did a lot of recruiting from the USAF when they were first getting started, so it should all dovetail nicely. Looking forward to hearing what he has to say [or rather, how he says it: I mostly come here for the comedic delivery!]
And if steely eyed missile men where in charge Challenger would have have never been in the air that day. It was too cold and seal rings too hard in the booster rockets. Obviously unqualified top management put so much pressure on the engineers they said ok to launch. One engineer walked out the meeting saying you are going it will explode on Launch. Why are those top managers still not in Jail. They never went near it.
12:05 Hiring Oberth to make a movie about going to the Moon, quite the cast considering the Hohmann transfer maneuver used to bring spacecraft there exploits the Oberth effect, most certainly named after the same person! :-)
The phrase was also used in "Apollo 13" after a contractor figured out how to fit a square filter into a round hole. Viewed this thrice and did not hear it mentioned. Weather the scene is true or not I do not know. Strategic Air Command, better known as SAC is an acronym which is a set of initials that make a word, in this case pronounced as sack. Same with Military Air Command MAC (mack) and Tactical Air command is TAC (tack) and North American Defense NORAD (Nor-add) Abbreviations are initials that are said individually such as FBI or IRS.
TOPIC IDEA: The humorous comments about Internet Rule 34 suggests a topic. How Porn / Sex has driven some of the most significant advances in human technology. Example: All consumer video technology happened because the massive size and cost of video recorders (VCRs) were replaced by Beta & VHS home players, then recorders. These devices went from thousands of $$ to many hundreds to just a hundred dollars almost overnight, because of the "economy of scale that happens with consumer electronics becoming popular. IE: The initial demographic that was purchasing these in numbers enough to drive the prices down, were for porn tapes, to record and or view. The sales numbers grew so fast that it triggered a huge price drop that became the runaway economics of Consumer Electronics: Initial sales generates price drops, causing sales to rocket, allowing the price to drop again, etc.
Started on this channel, but been watching a lot of business blaze lately. So it's a little weird hearing Simon says hit that thumbs up button instead of "smash that dislike button" lol.
He was given the task of managing ALL the power for the spacecraft...and his word was basically law. That was what was great about the Mission Control guys....no suits second-guessing, just the guys being given a task and left to DO that task, with everyone trusting in their education and experience. Same thing happened with Sy Liebergot, who was EECOM (same as Aaron) when the Apollo 13 O2 tank blew. if you listen to the flight controller recordings, while Gene Kranz -- and later Glynn Lunney -- would occasionally ask Sy for a clarification of a task or test he wanted while they were chasing down the problem, but when Sy said they had to shut the CM down -- thus killing any hopes of landing -- Lunney went with iut, because that determination was Sy's, and he trusted his controllers.
G'day Simon, The early part of this excellent video was correct. I remember well hearing the phrase, "Steely-eyed missile man/men." in a few late 50s films and, more accurately, some documentaries on the Strategic Air Command and/or ballistic missile technology, some of which either pre-dated or coincided with the first Mercury flights conducted by NASA which was not even in its 'teens'. Soon after the USAF was created (from the USAAF), uniforms of officers and SNCOs who qualified to work exclusively on missile technology earned a little metal missile badge to be worn on the centre of a lower uniform tunic breast pocket. In the parlance of the USAF these people swiftly became know by other members of the USAF as 'Missile Men', sometimes even in a derogatory sense. The badges themselves had the nickname: 'pocket rocket'. Another great video! Cheers, and all the best for Christmas! Bill
Hi Simon, I couldn't find a good video to post this under... so I am just asking here. can you please make a video what the thing is with the "ugly christmas sweater" .... I am German and we usually don't do costumes or dress up during christmas. And I believe in the UK you do constumes and in the US the sweater? Well... I would be so delighted to find out what the deal is with the ugly, scratchy reindeer sweaters.... Thank you so much...
As a bit of a NASA nerd, perhaps the most eye opening part was finding out that I had never heard of any of the spills 12 astronauts: As if being the second crew to land on the moon is nothing...
Didn`t help that they lost the broadcast video feed when on the moon and had to rely on radio. It was disappointing we never got to see TV pictures of Ranger 3 on the moon after it had been there for several years and had to wait for the photos when they got back.
I think that's what he meant by cut through the static. That was how I understood it, but I could definitely be wrong. It's happened at least once before, lol.
