Editing Countdown (section)

{{Short description|Decreasing count indicating the time remaining before an event}}
{{Other uses}}
{{Redirect|T-Minus|the Canadian hip-hop producer|T-Minus (producer)}}

[[File:Women world cup 2015 countdown.JPG|thumbnail|[[2015 FIFA Women's World Cup]] countdown at [[Champlain Place]], [[Dieppe, New Brunswick]]]]
A '''countdown''' is a sequence of backward counting to indicate the time remaining before an event is scheduled to occur. [[NASA]] commonly employs the terms "L-minus" and "T-minus" during the preparation for and anticipation of a rocket launch,<ref name=L-Minus>{{Cite tweet |number=561519037591846912 |user=@NASA_LSP |title="L Minus" time is different from "T Minus" time."L minus" indicates how far away we are from actual liftoff& doesn't include built-in holds. |author=NASA's Launch Services Program}}</ref> and even "E-minus" for events that involve spacecraft that are already in space, where the "T" could stand for "Test" or "Time", and the "E" stands for "Encounter", as with a comet or some other space object, like a [[spacecraft]].<ref name=E-Minus>{{cite news|title=NASA Mission 'E-Minus' One Month to Comet Flyby|url=http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/epoxi/epoxi20101004.html|access-date=2013-09-13|newspaper=NASA Mission News|date=2010-10-04|archive-date=2016-04-13|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160413170920/http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/epoxi/epoxi20101004.html|url-status=dead}}</ref>

Other events for which countdowns are commonly used include the detonation of an explosive, the start of a race, the start of the [[New Year]], or any anxiously anticipated event. An early use of a countdown once signaled the start of a [[Cambridge University]] rowing race.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Everett |first=William |author-link=William Everett |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=F9E_AAAAYAAJ&pg=PA192 |title=On the Cam: Lectures on the University of Cambridge in England |publisher=Sever and Francis |year=1865 |location=Cambridge, Massachusetts |pages=192 |language=}}</ref> 

One of the first known associations with rockets was in the 1929 German science fiction movie ''[[Woman in the Moon|Frau im Mond]]'' (English: ''Woman in the Moon'') written by [[Thea von Harbou]] and directed by [[Fritz Lang]] in an attempt to increase the drama of the launch sequence of the story's lunar-bound rocket.<ref>{{cite web |title=Spektrum der Wissenschaft - DenkMal-Frage: "Was verdankt die Raumfahrt dem Stummfilm "Die Frau im Mond" (1929) von Fritz Lang? |trans-title=Spektrum der Wissenschaft - DenkMal question: "What does space travel owe to the silent film "Woman in the Moon" (1929) by Fritz Lang? |url=http://www.wissenschaft-online.de/artikel/636420 |publisher=Wissenschaft-online.de |language=de}}</ref><ref name="DGA-Quarterly-summer2012">
{{cite journal
 | last = Weide
 | first= Robert
 | date = Summer 2012
 | title = The Outer Limits
 | journal = DGA Quarterly
 | location = Los Angeles, California 
 | pages = 64–71 
 | publisher = Directors Guild of America, Inc.
 | url=http://www.dga.org/Craft/DGAQ/All-Articles/1203-Summer-2012/Photo-Essay-Outer-Limits.aspx
}} A gallery of behind-the-scenes shots of movies featuring space travel or aliens. Page 68, photo caption: "Directed by Fritz Lang (third from right), the silent film "[[Woman in the Moon]]" (1929) is considered one of the first serious science fiction films and invented the countdown before the launch of a rocket. Many of the basics of space travel were presented to a mass audience for the first time."</ref>