countdown was: "As If"

[Mullins, Bill]

> >
> > Robert Heinlein's 1952 novel "The Rolling Stones" calls it a "count
> > off":
>
> Which also is of military origin.
>
> -Wilson Gray

It's not surprising he would use military jargon; he attended the Naval
Academy from 1925 - 1929, and served on the USS Lexington and USS Roper
before being disabled out, with TB.  He maintained an interest in
military affairs throughout his life.

I thought the cite would be relevant to the discussion of "countdown" in
rocketry because he was such an advocate of rockets and space travel,
and had personally attended two V-2 launches.  He would be as likely as
anyone to have picked up on "countdown" as we now use the term, and to
have used it in his writing (assuming it is of German origin).

The rocket launches in "The Rolling Stones" end with the German word
"Brennschluss" instead of "blast off", meaning to me that he was fully
aware of the importance of the Germans in advancing rocketry at the time
(he had maintained membership in the American Rocket Society since its
founding in the 1930's).