Newsgroups: sci.space.shuttle
Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!db.toronto.edu!hogg
From: hogg@db.toronto.edu (John Hogg)
Subject: Re: Shuttle orbiter-naming competition
Message-ID: <8807121414.AA00973@tango.db.toronto.edu>
Organization: University of Toronto, CSRI
References: <11378@ames.arc.nasa.gov> <46000001@hobbiton>
Date: Tue, 12 Jul 88 08:54:48 EDT

I cynically suspect that the powers-that-be have already selected the
name that they want for the new shuttle.  Now they're just waiting for
a sufficiently cute set of kids to come up with it too, but in any
case...

Given the current interest in crew safety, how about ``Endurance''?
For those who miss the reference, this was Shackleton's vessel on his
1914 expedition to Antarctica.  It was crushed in the ice, and a
phenomenal story of seamanship followed.  The entire crew dragged and
sailed the ship's boats to a suitable wintering spot.  Then, a few men
(among them Shackleton and his sailing master Worsley) sailed an open
boat to Elephant Island, and finally crossed a range of ``impassable''
mountains and glaciers on foot to reach the whaling station.  Shackleton
then had to make several attempts to get a rescue vessel through the
ice to the remainder of his party.

Not a single man was lost.  That ``failed expedition'' stands as one
of the greatest successes in polar exploration.

No, the name will never fly, but it deserves a place on the short
list...
-- 
John Hogg			   | hogg@csri.toronto.{edu,cdn}
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