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NASA Names New Spaceship 'Orion'

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the nasa's-brightest-star dept.

An anonymous reader writes "NASA's new spaceship that will carry astronauts to the moon and later to Mars has been officially named Orion. NASA confirmed the name after it was accidentally leaked to the media. Previously called the Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV), Orion will be NASA's main human spaceflight vehicle after the space shuttle fleet is retired in 2010. Orion was named after one of the brightest constellations in the entire sky. Earlier this year, the rocket that will launch Orion was named Ares I, and the heavy-lift rocket was named Ares V. NASA hopes the new names will become as familiar as Apollo and Saturn V."

3 of 132 comments (clear)

  1. Shouldn't it be called Onan by bofkentucky · · Score: 2, Insightful

    We're being jerked around with "we can put a crew in orbit" instead of working on high speed probe drives and planetary exploration.

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    09f911029d74e35bd84156c5635688c0
  2. Timeframe by wampus · · Score: 2, Insightful

    They want to have people in it in orbit by 2014, 8+ years of development time. Didn't Apollo go from nothing to guy on the moon in about the same timeframe?

  3. Re:Stargate? by 91degrees · · Score: 3, Insightful

    However, I have a feeling it's going to be less reliable than Ancient technology.

    Well, lets be honest, ancient technology was built to last. Anything that broke easily isn't around anymore.