<P> US Air Force Lt. Col. John `` Shorty '' Powers popularized the expression `` A-ok '' while NASA 's public affairs officer for Project Mercury , and was reported as attributing it to astronaut Alan Shepard during his Freedom 7 flight . However , the NASA publication This New Ocean : A History of Project Mercury says in a footnote : `` A replay of the flight voice communications tape disclosed that Shepard himself did not use the term . '' and that `` Tecwyn Roberts of STG and Capt . Henry E. Clements of the Air Force had used ' A. OK ' frequently in reports written more than four months before the Shepard flight . '' Apparently , the first documented use of `` A-ok '' is contained within a memo from that Tecwyn Roberts , a Flight Dynamics Officer , to Flight Director ( entitled `` Report on Test 3805 '' , dated Feb 2 , 1961 ) in penciled notes on the countdown of MR - 2 ( Mercury - Redstone 2 ) , dated Jan ( uary ) 31 , 1961 . In his book The Right Stuff author Tom Wolfe wrote that Powers had borrowed it from NASA engineers who used it during radio transmission tests because `` the sharper sound of A cut through the static better than O '' . </P>
<P> US Air Force Lt. Col. John `` Shorty '' Powers popularized the expression `` A-ok '' while NASA 's public affairs officer for Project Mercury , and was reported as attributing it to astronaut Alan Shepard during his Freedom 7 flight . However , the NASA publication This New Ocean : A History of Project Mercury says in a footnote : `` A replay of the flight voice communications tape disclosed that Shepard himself did not use the term . '' and that `` Tecwyn Roberts of STG and Capt . Henry E. Clements of the Air Force had used ' A. OK ' frequently in reports written more than four months before the Shepard flight . '' Apparently , the first documented use of `` A-ok '' is contained within a memo from that Tecwyn Roberts , a Flight Dynamics Officer , to Flight Director ( entitled `` Report on Test 3805 '' , dated Feb 2 , 1961 ) in penciled notes on the countdown of MR - 2 ( Mercury - Redstone 2 ) , dated Jan ( uary ) 31 , 1961 . In his book The Right Stuff author Tom Wolfe wrote that Powers had borrowed it from NASA engineers who used it during radio transmission tests because `` the sharper sound of A cut through the static better than O '' . </P>
where did the saying a okay come from
where did the saying a okay come from
Tecwyn Roberts , a Flight Dynamics Officer , to Flight Director ( entitled `` Report on Test 3805 '' , dated Feb 2 , 1961 ) in penciled notes on the countdown of MR - 2 ( Mercury - Redstone 2 ) , dated Jan ( uary ) 31 , 1961
Tecwyn Roberts , a Flight Dynamics Officer , to Flight Director ( entitled `` Report on Test 3805 '' , dated Feb 2 , 1961 ) in penciled notes on the countdown of MR - 2 ( Mercury - Redstone 2 ) , dated Jan ( uary ) 31 , 1961