Why do we say "It's not rocket science"?

Meaning:

The task at hand should be easy.

Background:

During WWII, Germany was investing heavily in their weapons program. This resulted in what was arguably the most advanced weapon at the time: the V-2 rocket, the first ballistic missile. Created by a team led by engineer Wernher von Braun, it had a maximum range of 220 miles, which enabled Axis powers to launch more than 2600 V-2 rockets at London, Antwerp, Liege, Brussels, Paris, and Luxembourg over the last two years of the war.

When WWII ended in Europe, both Russia and the United States recruited Germany’s scientists for their own weapons programs. The US plan was called Project Overcast (later renamed Project Paperclip or Operation Paperclip). It was started in the hopes of developing rockets that would help win the war in the Pacific against Japanese forces but it showed so much promise that it was continued well after the war’s conclusion. The German scientists and their U.S. counterparts were especially important during the Cold War years, developing rockets, satellites, and spacecraft.

The United States government wasn’t shy about publicizing its successes, so the American public knew that scientists were working on advanced technologies — “rocket science” — to keep them safe as well as to send people into space. Rocket science became considered to be something that was difficult to master, requiring intelligence beyond most people's capabilities.

It wasn’t until the 1980s, though, that the phrase “it’s not rocket science” came into vogue — associated with football, of all things. The first instance in print comes from Philadelphia’s The Daily Intelligencer in December 1985. In it, a sports commentator writes that “Coaching football is not rocket science and it’s not brain surgery. It’s a game, nothing more.” Other references specific to the game of football soon followed.

Within the next five years the saying caught on and spread widely. A 1990 article in U.S. News & World Report (Vol. 109, Issue 15) clearly indicates the phrase had become an idiom by the time of publication:

Watching the nation’s leaders in inaction, it might be hard to believe that there’s a pretty sensible – and politically passable – deal to be struck to end the budget impasse. Here it is: Cut medicare payments to doctors and hospitals and raise payroll taxes on the well-to-do; lower capital-gains taxes and increase tax rates on the wealthy. This is not rocket science. It would give President Bush and Democrats each something they care about, and it would require that they give up fighting against something that irks them.

Before the 1980s, the most difficult skill to master was considered brain surgery, and the phrase “It’s not brain surgery” was commonly used starting in the 1960s — but that’s another article. Both idioms are still widely used today to indicate tasks that shouldn’t be difficult.

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