Secret Name For NASA Craft Slips Out

Associated Press ^ | 08/22/06 | Unknown

[FReepaholic]

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- The name of the new vehicle that NASA hopes returns astronauts to the moon was supposed to be kept hush until an announcement scheduled for next week at the earliest.

But apparently U.S. astronaut Jeff Williams, floating 220 miles above Earth at the International Space Station, did not get the memo.

[FReepaholic]

Oops. Astronaut Williams just violated the sacred astronaut credo: "Don't F*ck Up"

[andy58-in-nh]

"Don't F*ck Up"

Is that the name of the spacecraft?

[RexBeach]

No. I think the new name will be STFU. :)

[Cementjungle]

"Don't F*ck Up"

That's DFU for short.

[My2Cents]

It's funny. While the Apollo craft obviously had a name, NASA never gave a name to the lunar module, simply calling it "the LEM."

[RightWhale]

Orion will bring Hoagland to an even higher fever pitch.

[Vaquero]

Begorah..they be namin' it after Mr. O'Ryan

[RightWhale]

They had to shorten that to LM, since the E stood for excursion and NASA didn't want anyone to get the idea that the lunar landing would be a vacation or picnic.

[repentant_pundit]

Since NASA's already been to the moon, the name should be Apollo 2.

Oops, that's already been done. But then again, so has the mission.

In other news, Portugal will be launching some wooden sailing ships to explore North America.

.

[HEY4QDEMS]

Ahem.....The Eagle has landed.

[San Jacinto]

I think Neil Armstrong's LEM was named "Eagle".

[My2Cents]

Since there's a history of naming US spacecraft after Greek gods and heros, how about "Hermes"? :-)

[Vaquero]

ping

[jbwbubba]

Come on, everyone wants to call it 'Enterprise' and you know it.

[My2Cents]

Apollo 9's LM was named "Gumdrop." These were official names.

[My2Cents]

Sorry, these wereN'T official names.

[Phsstpok]

We already had an Orion, also known as project "boom boom."  It was well represented in the movie Deep Impact and better in the book Footfall:

"Take a big metal plate," Curtis said. "Big and thick. Make it a hemisphere, but it could even be flat. Put a large ship, say the size of a battleship, on top of it. You want a really good shock absorber system between the plate and the ship.

"Now put an atom bomb underneath and light it off, I guarantee you that sucker will move." He sketched as he talked. "You keep throwing atom bombs underneath the ship. It puts several million pounds into orbit. In fact, the more mass you’ve got, the smoother the ride."

And Williams didn't "screw the pooch." He did as asked and taped a message on the topic for use by NASA at a later date. The screw up was when that taped message was transmitted in the clear over a channel open to eavedropping. Dare we suggest that the presstitute who got this scoop is guily of a warrantless wiretap?

But I love the comment "I guarantee you that sucker will move."

[andy58-in-nh]

Apparently, the name has already been used:

[texson66]

OREO!

[evets]