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How Space Shuttle Endeavour [Sic] Got Its Name

Space Shuttle Endeavour, the replacement for Space Shuttle Challenger after its explosion in 1986, and the last addition to NASA's orbiter fleet, is set to launch this morning on its last mission. But how many of the estimated 100,000 people watching...

Space Shuttle Endeavour, the replacement for Space Shuttle Challenger after its explosion in 1986, and the last addition to NASA’s orbiter fleet, is set to launch this morning on its last mission. But how many of the estimated 100,000 people watching the launch in person will notice that the shuttle’s name is spelled the way the British would spell it, not the American “Endeavor”? (Even the sign-makers at NASA didn’t get the memo one time.)

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So how could such a symbol of American ingenuity and engineering achievement get named by the British?

Before being delivered to NASA in 1992 at a cost of over $2 billion, Endeavour was the first shuttle to be named by public vote. Elementary and secondary school students chose the name of the first ship commanded by James Cook, the 18th century British explorer, navigator and astronomer. Cook’s mission not only recorded the transit of the planet Venus past the sun, but famously established the value of sending scientists on voyages of exploration, and proved the effectiveness of Cook’s choice to use diet as a cure for scurvy, the dietary disease caused by lack of ascorbic acids (he made his crew eat cress, sauerkraut and an orange extract; reportedly, Endeavour’s was the the first long-distance voyage on which no crewman died from scurvy).

A NASA educational video, “Liftoff To Learning: Voyage of Endeavour, Then and Now” (1992), Archive.org.

The modern-day Endeavour is famous for having supported the longest spacewalk ever, for carrying the first African-American astronaut, Mae Jamison, and for helping to construct the first parts of the International Space Station. This time around, Endeavour’s crew will carry out the last astronaut space walks, ferry a bunch of spare parts and the cosmic ray detector Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer II, and bring Mark Kelly, husband of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, to Space Station for the last time. The mission even has its own Star Trek-like poster:

Hokeyness aside – and say what you want about how we’ve been stuck in low Earth orbit for decades – but just keep this in mind: 300 years ago we were exploring the Earth on ships, and here we are taking rides up to a five-bedroom mansion that circles the planet. Even if the ride’s name almost demands to be said in a British accent, the American “awesome” still works well as a description.

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An overview of the STS-134 mission.

Watch the launch on spacevidcast.

Connections:
Space Shuttle Parking Lot: A Documentary About Humanity’s Greatest Spectacle
Dreaming Infinity: Starscream’s Soaring Space Anthems Will Get the Space Shuttle Endeavour Off The Ground
Space Shuttle Launch Vs. Royal Wedding: The Embarrassing Contest for Humanity’s Attention

via NASA