Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!aplcen!uakari.primate.wisc.edu!gem.mps.ohio-state.edu!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!pt.cs.cmu.edu!sam.cs.cmu.edu!bdz From: bdz@sam.cs.cmu.edu (Brian Zill) Newsgroups: sci.space.shuttle Subject: Re: When does the official name change? Keywords: official reports Message-ID: <7036@pt.cs.cmu.edu> Date: 19 Nov 89 06:12:05 GMT References: Organization: Carnegie-Mellon University, CS/RI Lines: 18 jim@hardees.rutgers.edu (Jim Martin) writes: >A quick question from a novice... When does the name change in the >official reports? I realize that sounds confusing, so for example, >right now STS-32 has flown, and is recieving post flight service. My >question is when will they start refering to it with the name >referencing its next flight (STS-whatever). From my observations, the designation changes when the Shuttle arrives back at KSC. All post flight service is done under the next flight's number, they seem to consider post flight service as part of prepping the craft for the subsequent mission. Flying the craft back to KSC aboard the 747 shuttle carrier aircraft appears to be the last step of any given mission. I believe you are confused by the fact that the STS numbers are not being flown in stict numerical order. STS-32 [LDEF retrieval] has NOT been flown yet, and in fact it will follow STS-33 [DoD mission]. --Brian