A-OK - wikipedia A-OK For other uses, see AOK ( disambiguation ). Look up A-okay in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. A-ok ( also, A-okay or A-OK / ˌeɪ. oʊ ˈkeɪ / ) is a more intensive word form of the English term OK. 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 ''. The phrase can be accompanied by, or substituted with, the A-OK sign. Note : The phrase `` A-OK '' has already been in use in 1952 in an advertisement by Midvac Steels which titles `` A-OK for tomorrow 's missile demands '' ( see `` The Golden Age of Advertising - the 50s '', p. 57, Ed. Jim Heimann, Taschen 2005 ). References Jump up ^ `` Calm Voice from Space ''. Time. Time Inc. March 2, 1962. Retrieved April 3, 2011. ( Subscription required ( help ) ). ^ Jump up to : Wolfe, Tom ( 1988 ). The Right Stuff ( 17th print ed. ). Toronto : Bantam Books. p. 227. ISBN 9780553275568. Retrieved June 28, 2015 -- via Google Books. ^ Jump up to : Swenson, Loyd S. Jr. ; Grimwood, James M. ; Alexander, Charles C. ( 1989 ). `` This New Ocean : A History of Project Mercury, Chap. 10 : ' Ham Paves the Way ' ''. Footnote 37. NASA ( National Aeronautics and Space Administration ). Retrieved June 22, 2015. In reporting the Freedom 7 flight, the press attributed the term to Astronaut Shepard,... A replay of the flight voice communications tape disclosed that Shepard himself did not use the term... It was Col. John A. `` Shorty '' Powers... 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... Other sources claim that oldtime railroad telegraphers used `` A-OK '' as one of several terms to report the status of their equipment. Be that as it may, Powers, `` the voice of Mercury Control, '' by his public use of `` A. OK, '' made those three letters a universal symbol meaning `` in perfect working order. '' Jump up ^ Strauss, Mark ( April 15, 2011 ). `` Ten Enduring Myths About the U.S. Space Program : 5. `` Alan Shepard is A-Okay '' ``. Smithsonian. Smithsonian Institution. p. 3. Retrieved September 8, 2011. Jump up ^ `` Tecwyn Roberts : A-OK. '' llanddaniel.co.uk. Retrieved : May 5, 2011. Retrieved from `` https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=A-ok&oldid=832729759 '' Categories : American English words Interjections Slang Hidden categories : Pages containing links to subscription - only content All articles lacking reliable references Articles lacking reliable references from June 2015 Talk About Wikipedia Add links This page was last edited on 27 March 2018, at 17 : 59. About Wikipedia

Question: where did the saying a okay come from
Answer: 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