posted 10-14-2018 02:44 PM               

Since then, it was pointed out that The New York Times ran a UPI article on this subject on April 2, 1965:

Regardless of what the dictionary says, the Federal space agency's official pronunciation for its new man-in-space program, Gemini, is "Jiminy," as in "Jiminy Cricket."

posted 10-17-2018 01:21 PM               

...it wasn't always so clear, said Bill Barry, the space agency's chief historian. Back in the time of the Gemini program, "it kind of depended who you were talking to, and what day of the week it was," and even varied from NASA locations, he said.

For "First Man," NASA arranged a meeting between the film's star, Ryan Gosling, and Michael Collins, a member of the Apollo 11 crew. Taking the opportunity, Dr. Barry asked Mr. Collins to resolve the question. "He kind of gets this twinkle in his eye," he recalled. "He used the word 'Gemini' twice in his answer — and he pronounced it both ways."

As for the filmmakers, Dr. Barry said that he suggested to them that for the sake of clarity, they pick one pronunciation and stick with it. "From my perspective, from 50 years later, whichever you want to use is fine."

posted 10-19-2018 09:03 PM               

quote:

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Originally posted by SpaceDust:
His response was "Jim and I."

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posted 10-20-2018 06:42 AM               

Examples: (1) Both Jim and I are going out for the space walk. (2) Notify Jim and me before making a decision like that again. (3) Before the launch, I was thinking about both Jim and myself and our very different career paths.

So it would have been entirely appropriate grammar for Borman to respond "Jim and I" in the context of "Jim Lovell and I are the astronauts assigned to Gemini 7." This is why his answer is quite witty.

posted 10-22-2018 09:26 PM               

Of the numerous forums and news stories that address NASA's aberration of the English language, there have been several points of origin attributed with first speaking the word as if referring to a famous cricket (spelling: Jiminy).

Even if the origin of this pronunciation could be traced to a single source, the practice of using the unique pronunciation should have been arrested by the many of the thousands of higher educated individuals involved in the space program, that each had attended university and would undoubtedly been capable of identifying such a slur.

The most likely reasoning for the continued use of the altered version is most likely due to a cultural trend within NASA at the time, whereby the used of the "ee" sound meant some kind of unwritten membership to a group of people in the know (what all the cool kids are saying).

This is much the same as why the SR71 became known as the HABU within the circle of aviators associated with the aircraft, or why the F111 Aardvark became affectionately known as the "Pig" within Australian Air Force crews.

Today, a new generation of people have begun asking the same question that has addressed the Gemini program from the beginning, What's up with NASA's pronunciation of Gemini?