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From: eem@jc3b21.UUCP (Emery E. Mandel)
Newsgroups: net.columbia
Subject: Launch naming scheme - Revisited
Message-ID: <167@jc3b21.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 22-Feb-86 23:07:02 EST
Article-I.D.: jc3b21.167
Posted: Sat Feb 22 23:07:02 1986
Date-Received: Fri, 28-Feb-86 08:13:15 EST
Organization: St. Petersburg Jr. College, FL
Lines: 15

An article on the net about a month ago explained
that the first digit of a launch name (61-C for
instance) represented the fiscal year in which
the mission was launched. My question is: Why
was the Columbia mission named 61-C while the
Challenger mission was named 51-L? To me, it
seems as though they're going backwards. (No
pun intended in light of the accident.)

Can someone "in the know" answer this for me?
Thanks in advance.

Emery Mandel
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"Gee, it's warm down here in FLORIDA."