Originally Posted by blackshire

Hello All,

Watching *this* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A5ApQ8k_Gt0 video of yesterday's Antares-Cygnus cargo launch to the International Space Station, the public was treated--as always with Antares launches--to "The 'Nominal' Drinking Game," but this time there was something extra:

During powered ascent, while the "Nominal guy" was reading off the events as they occurred and mentioning upcoming ones, someone's telephone line somehow got patched into his audio circuit, adding some confusion to the proceedings (with adults and children being heard talking and laughing). After this had gone on for a bit, a third voice cut in and said, "Hot mic on countdown one! Hot mic!" Then:

The extraneous audio immediately vanished, but moments later--just before separation of the Cygnus payload from the Antares vehicle's burned-out second stage motor--a telephone started ringing, after which an automated call-connection failure message from Verizon Wireless played! The last time I heard anything even vaguely resembling these audio paux pas was when Pete Conrad (standing up in the open hatch of Skylab 2's Command Module, struggling--without success--to get a long-handled cutting tool into position to snip through the straps holding Skylab's remaining but stuck large workshop solar panel) cursed--like the sailor he was--and was advised by Mission Control that his was also a hot mic... :-)