Path: utzoo!linus!necntc!ames!umd5!uvaarpa!mcnc!ncsuvx!ncspm!jay
From: jay@ncspm.ncsu.edu (Jay C. Smith)
Newsgroups: sci.space.shuttle
Subject: Re: News release of net interest
Message-ID: <840@ncspm.ncsu.edu>
Date: 18 Apr 88 14:43:36 GMT
References: <6687@ames.arpa> <191800004@trsvax> <1785@ur-tut.UUCP> <2518@c3pe.UUCP>
Reply-To: jay@ncspm.ncsu.EDU (Jay C. Smith)
Organization: Crop Science Dept., North Carolina State University
Lines: 30

In article <2518@c3pe.UUCP> maugorn@c3pe.UUCP (Steve "Maugorn" Haug) writes:
>In article <1785@ur-tut.UUCP> kwa1_ltd@tut.cc.rochester.edu.UUCP 
>(Karl Wagenfuehr Ltd.) writes:
>>Personally, I think the name "Phoenix" would be most appropriate for
>>the new shuttle.
>
>You're not alone.   I also believe that "Phoenix" would be an absolutely 
>incredible name for the new shuttle.                  

I waited until I saw that no one had mentioned this, but Phoenix
was the name proposed by Wally Schirra for the Apollo VII command
module (in the aftermath of the Apollo I tragedy).  NASA quickly nixed 
that idea, and besides, there hadn't been a named spacecraft since Gemini 
III's Molly Brown.  I think NASA decided that the problems they had with 
Gus Grissom over the naming of that one weren't worth repeating, since they 
saw that obviously not all the crews would want to give their craft a 
"respectable" name (even though the proposed name for Gemini IV was American 
Eagle, or something like that).  They did not return to names until Apollo IX, 
because the mission involved two separate spacecraft which necessitated use
of some sort of code names.

BTW, did the Skylab command modules have names?  Did the Apollo-Soyuz
CM have a name?  Is the designation "Apollo XVIII" that some references
use for Apollo-Soyuz really justified (was it ever officially that)?

-- 

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Jay C. Smith                    uucp:     ...!mcnc!ncsuvx!ncspm!jay
Domain:	jay@ncspm.ncsu.edu      internet: jay%ncspm@ncsuvx.ncsu.edu