steely-eyed missile man

plural steely-eyed missile men

1. UShumorousoftenslangspace flightAn astronaut or engineer who quickly comes up with a solution to a difficult problem while under extreme pressure.

   “Message reads: ‘Houston, be advised: Rich Purnell is a steely-eyed missile man’.” / “What?” Brendan asked. “Who the hell is Rich Purnell?”

   2011, Andy Weir, chapter 16, in The Martian, New York, N.Y.: Crown Publishing Group, published 2014, →ISBN, page 213

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   The "hold" in the countdown of a rocket firing has a long and infamous history. It doubtless is as old as the "countdown" itself. We Brevardians have seen thousands upon thousands of pictures of countdowns in progress, of green lights flashing, green buttons being pushed, fuming LOX [liquid oxygen] boiling off, steely-eyed missile men battening hatches and astronauts climbing aboard.

   1973 May 13, Emsley Armfield, “Picture this … a countdown stops”, in Brevard Sentinel: An Edition of the Orlando Sentinel Star, Orlando, Fla.: Sentinel Star Co., →OCLC, page 4, column 4

   Among the men in the Canaveral blockhouse and the Houston control room, there was no greater tribute a controller could be paid than to describe him, in the rough poetry of the rocketry community, as a "steely-eyed missile man." There weren't many steely-eyed missile men in the nasa family. [Wernher] Von Braun was certainly one, [Christopher Columbus] Kraft was certainly one, [Gene] Kranz was probably one too. John Aaron, a twenty-seven-year-old wunderkind from Oklahoma, had recently become one as well.

   1994, Jim Lovell, Jeffrey Kluger, chapter 6, in Lost Moon: The Perilous Voyage of Apollo 13, Boston, Mass.; New York, N.Y.: Houghton Mifflin Company, →ISBN, page 157

   At first glance, the stolid engineers and impassive pilots of the Apollo program weren't colorful movie characters. As [Ron] Howard [director of Apollo 13 (1995)] got to know the stoic astronauts and "steely-eyed missile men" of Mission Control, he saw their sense of humor, their wilder sides and the doubts they carry like everyone else.

   1995 June 28, Jane Summer, “Tom Hanks, co-stars relive ‘NASA’s finest hour’”, in Dave Long, editor, Pharos-Tribune, volume 151, number 153, Logansport, Ind.: Logansport Newspapers, page A10, columns 5–6

   When [Ron] Howard toured nasa, he learned that the visitors' favorite question was: How do you pee in space? "Well," he decided, "that means we'll have to show it in the movie." So they do. Added [Tom] Hanks: "Maybe in the sequel we'll show how they go doo-doo." Spoken like a steely-eyed missile man.

   1995 July 3, Richard Corliss, “Hell of a Ride: With Tom Hanks as the Pilot, Apollo 13 is a Stirring Tribute to the Heroes who Fly High in the Face of Failure [film review]”, in Time, volume 146, number 1, New York, N.Y.: Time Inc., →ISSN, →OCLC, page 53, column 1

   NASA Entry Flight Director Tony Ceccacci said the motto in Mission Control is "flight controllers don't cry." He tried to remain stoic – like a steely eyed missile man – after his team guided Atlantis and its crew through an era-ending atmospheric re-entry. "This will be the last time this team will be together," Ceccacci said, struggling to maintain his composure.

   2012 February, Elaine E. Liston, “July”, in Chronology of KSC [Kennedy Space Center] and KSC Related Events for 2011 (NASA/TM-2012-216309), Merritt Island, Fla.: John F. Kennedy Space Center, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, →OCLC, page 210