this post was submitted on 12 Mar 2024
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[–] ptfrd@sh.itjust.works 4 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (1 children)

From the official NASA coverage:

https://www.youtube.com/live/PJAUetG6C2E?t=42m25s "It performed norminal ... excuse me ... nominal, which basically means normal".

I actually genuinely prefer when the SpaceX commentators accidentally say "norminal", precisely because "nominal" does NOT mean 'normal'. It's closer to the opposite.

If Alice was thinking of buying a car from Bob and I told her "the vehicle I bought from Bob works fine, nominally", she would rightly take that as a warning.

If my family member was in space and I heard on the nets "safety systems nominal", I'd be bricking it!

AFAICT it's only the space industry that gets this wrong.

[–] llamacoffee@lemmy.world 3 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Norminal is one of my favorite space-isms! I think nominal is just tradition at this point

Earliest known use: The one and only John Insprucker, 2017-07-05, Intelsat 35e Launch Webcast at T+4:08.