Launch Commit Criteria
An actual moonshot had lift-off this week. Nasa's Artemis II heads to the dark side.
Immediately prior with launch countdown at T-minus 10 minutes, it got paused.
At the time, I heard seasoned scientists discuss why. Given that this was at the third time of asking after two previous aborts, to me they seemed surprisingly of calm opinion that all was fine. Something to do with getting through properly the pre-flight checks.
Some will know of the famed Armageddon (1998) movie quip. About to take-off, the super-IQ Rockhound (played with nonchalant craziness by Steve Buschemi) chirped to this fellow first-time astronauts;
"You know we're sitting on four million pounds of fuel ... and a thing that has 270,000 moving parts built by the lowest bidder. Makes you feel good, doesn't it?"
In today's case, the rocket was cited as having up to 800 items on its 'Go' checklist.
Many of which are now automated. With human oversight where apt. (Which alone gives us further food for thought.)
Divide its moving parts by 800 for quite the shock, hey.
In the aftermath of what the commentators exclaimed as a perfect launch, many problems were revealed.
Some rushed to fix, others deemed within tolerable risk levels.
Not to mention the sitcom-worthy in-flight issues of Microsoft Outlook outage, their toilet breaking and a strange burning smell.
Which all reminds me of a bygone satire. Behind the scenes with the crew of a flight from London to Paris. When expressing alarm on witnessing cockpit checks revealing issues, the 'reporter' was duly reassured by pilots that many of the flags related to such as if your car's glove compartment light didn't come on when opened, but you can still happily drive on. He ended up arrested on landing.
There was a well-established Qualification mnemonic that was part of my first ever Go routines for a bid as cubrep in the 90s. Given the nationality of the guy crafting with my then team, Scotsman became Welshman.
I always thought it a brilliant tool. And when I myself ran my own salesteam knowledge management business, I remixed for my own version as ᴡɪɴɴᴇʀ.
When you start the exercise, over a couple-dozen markers readily flow. I've been constantly amazed down the years how few salesteams utilise such a useful device.
The key element is the scale for each trait, from 1 to 5. The higher the number, the more desirable the bid. It really makes you understand how superstar sellers' mindset is to instinctively look to why they could qualify out.
If you did hone 24 such criteria, then max-score poss would be 100. How far below that gives you indication you also ought call off the Go?