I still fondly remember that little inn along the Neva in 1700. You know the one where blonde Olga served bootleg vodka with smoked salmon. Gosh what a time. ;-)
@wingsofwrath As far as I can tell it originates from the US military, with 'rapid unintentional disassembly' being a darkly humorous reference to a rifle coming apart if you mistreat it. As far as when, it showed up in a book in 1970, so it must've been in common use before that point.
@Lildawg32301 It's very simple: Everything that can go wrong WILL go wrong. You can assemble the rocket right, launch it the right way and everything works perfectly. But then, in a random moment, the rocket (or what ever you build) blows up because one tiny thing isn't working out as planned and so the rocket performs a R.U.D. as consequence.
@Norppanen A rough translation of what he said is
"I hope that the rocket dont blow up. I dont know how Ill react if that happens."
"Ill have my baby (go) up in space. It will be born tomorrow, and thats amazingly big."
"I thought; how hard can it be? But I have to say, there has been phases where I have thought; we are throwing the towel. It hasnt been easy. You shouldnt think that by snapping your fingers you have built an instrument and get it up with the space station. Its really really hard work."
"You hold your breath every step of the way. If it travels far it also needs to get into the right orbit. If it gets into the right orbit it also has to be hooked onto the space station. And then they have to turn it on, and thats when you find out if the boys and girls have made a good piece of work."
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They undergo R.U.D
Rapid Unscheduled Disassembly