Posted on 08/22/2006 8:18:42 PM PDT by ajolympian2004
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - The name of the new vehicle that NASA hopes will take astronauts back to the moon was supposed to be hush-hush until next week.
But apparently U.S. astronaut Jeff Williams, floating 220 miles above Earth at the international space station, didn't get the memo.
Williams, through no fault of his own, let it slip Tuesday that the new vehicle's name is Orion.
"We've been calling it the crew exploration vehicle for several years, but today it has a name — Orion," Williams said, taping a message in advance for the space agency that was transmitted accidentally over space-to-ground radio.
NASA planned to reveal the new name Aug. 31, when the space agency also announces which contractor will build the vehicle. Competing for the award are Lockheed Martin and a team made up of Northrop Grumman and Boeing.
The crew exploration vehicle will replace the space shuttle program after it ends in 2010. Earlier this summer, NASA announced the names of the rockets that will propel the crew exploration vehicle and a cargo vehicle, respectively Ares I and Ares V.
"One of the things we get into at NASA is we run around and call things by technical names and acronyms," project manager Skip Hatfield told The Associated Press on Tuesday. "This allows us to have an identity that we can use."
I love that name.
Orion.....the hunter.
It's no secret. I heard the Orion name several weeks ago.
Is that the official logo for the Orion CEV?
Which end is the nose? It looks like it goes forward and backward.
Thats the logo. The booster name is Ares. This was not a secret, I saw these logos and the name weeks ago. The press is trying to blow this up to something its not.
Ah Hah! Antisemitism!
Sounds OK to me.
Sam Clemens' brother's name, as all us FR Mark Twain nuts know.
I like that name, I'm just wondering if Werner Vahn Braun's idea of Orion might be on their minds.
Anybody remember the proposed The Orion Project??
A propulsion system where vehicle weight/mass, for all intents and purposes *does not matter*.
Ozark Mountain Daredevils (1973)- Spaceship Orion Song Lyrics
INTRO)
when the man comes to you
tells you what you always knew was comin'
you feel it came twice as fast
you always thought the world would last way past you
but now you find it's time
'cause there's nothin' left around you
spaceship orion's there waiting to part the air above you
waiting to take you
waiting to place you
in a world exactly different
from the one you leave behind
if you find it man you're lucky
but it still won't be the same
if can't be like home
it can't feel like home
to you there
it can't be like home
it can't feel like home
to you there
if can't be like home
it can't feel like home
to you there
For NASA being in a supposedly Christian country, why the continued use of pagans (Ares)? At least Orion seems to be something secular, or is it?
Ping
But Orion is also frequently used in a lot of space-related things.
Hopefully they are not doing this new expedition to the moon in a Hollywood film studio like the Apollo missions.
;)
:)
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