page_title: John A. Powers
section_title: Project Mercury
hierarchical_section_title: John A. Powers / Biography / Project Mercury
caption_attribution_description: English: Black-and-white photo of Mercury astronaut John Glenn; Lt. Col. John A. "Shorty" Powers, USAF (922-1979), Project Mercury public affairs officer; and Mercury astronaut Alan Shepard at impromptu news conference at Cape Canaveral, Florida
context_page_description: John Anthony Powers, better known as Shorty Powers, was an American public affairs officer for NASA from 1959 to 1963 during Project Mercury. A U.S. Air Force lieutenant colonel and war veteran, he was known as the "voice of the astronauts," the "voice of Mercury Control," and the "eighth astronaut." He received his nickname for his 5-foot, 6-inch height.
context_section_description: Powers' experience with public affairs caught the attention of the newly formed NASA, and he was detailed to NASA's Space Task Group in April 1959 as its public affairs officer at the request of T. Keith Glennan, NASA's first administrator. Very early on April 12, 1961, John G. Warner, a UPI rewrite-man in Washington, D.C., roused Powers from sleep at Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia seeking comment on the flight of Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, the first person in space. Powers replied, in part, "We're all asleep down here," which made headlines.
  He served as mission commentator for the six manned Mercury flights, introducing "A-OK" into the American vocabulary to signify procedures during the missions had proceeded as planned. He claimed astronaut Alan Shepard first used the expression during his Freedom 7 flight, but communication transcripts later showed he had not. In his 1979 book The Right Stuff, 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".
  Powers enjoyed the limelight, and was accused of scheduling news conferences so he could appear live on national television and occasionally twisting the facts. For example, he told reporters the day before Gus Grissom's flight that the astronaut had gone fishing that day and had cooked and eaten his catch, which would have violated his pre-flight diet.
  Manned Spacecraft Center Director Robert Gilruth announced Powers' reassignment on July 26, 1963, reportedly following a dispute with NASA Headquarters over handling publicity for the final Mercury flight. Powers objected to the HQ decision to release the mission's 22-orbit flight plan in advance. He was succeeded by Paul Haney on September 1, and Powers soon resigned.
caption: Powers sits between Mercury astronauts John Glenn (left) and Alan Shepard at a 1961 news conference at Cape Canaveral
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