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It seems to have a special space meaning: "Aerospace & Engineering. According to plan or design: a nominal flight check." http://www.thefreedictionary.com/nom
by frabcus 14y ago
It seems to have a special space meaning:
"Aerospace & Engineering. According to plan or design: a nominal flight check."
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/nominally http://www.thefreedictionary.com/nominally
- jakkals 14y agoAh. That explains it. I did not know that meaning of the word, and the explanation I checked at: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/nominal http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/nominal only showed the meanings that I was familiar with. Live and learn, I guess. Thanks frabcus!
- saraid216 14y agoI'm getting the sense that it's used because "numbers != reality", so it's a subtle reminder that they're basing their call on sensor data, rather than actually having their head inside the engine. I find that to be a sufficient explanation, though I'm just guessing.
- russell 14y agoHaving listened to 5 decades of rocket launches, I would say that nominal means that it is working within mission parameters. There may be glitches, but it is going to work, i.e. the payload is going into orbit. The engine failure wasnt planned, but there was enough redundancy in the system for it to succeed.