(no subject)

[ginny_t]

Is the shuttle Endeavour's name really "Endeavour"? Because I'd be pretty surprised if it was. I'm almost entirely convinced that it's really "Endeavor", but some overzealous editor at the headline service incorrected it. Bad editor, no cookie. (Why yes, I am fierce about my U's^†, but not in names!)

[edit: Sorry editor. You were right. Have a cookie.]

^† I hate this apostrophe, but it's the accepted convention for differentiating the plural of the letter U from the object pronoun for first person plural. *sigh*

Comments

[gruberman.livejournal.com]

They spell it with the U on nasa's site:

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/main/index.html

[ginny-t.livejournal.com]

AWESOME! Hee. Kinda crazy, but I like it. ^_^

[lkk.livejournal.com]

*puts on her NASA Visitor Center lecturer hat*

Yes, it's really spelled that way. All space shuttles are named after famous historical sailing vessels. Endeavour is named after the British sailing vessel that Cook sailed during his famous South Seas tour. (Or was it Darwin's ship?? I've forgotten. It's been a while since I worked at the Visitor Center.) Anyways, yes, the shuttle's name does indeed have the English spelling.

[ginny-t.livejournal.com]

Ah, this now makes sense. Cool, thanks.

[lkk.livejournal.com]

Ah! I just remembered. Darwin's ship was the HMS Beagle. So it was definitely Cook's ship that Endeavour is named after.

[lordshipmayhem.livejournal.com]

Yes, HMS Endeavour. All but one of the shuttles are named for famous historical vessels of exploration.

The only exception is the Enterprise, OV-101, named after Gene Roddenberry's starship from Star Trek. Only used in atmospheric flight tests and never flown in space, it's currently on display at the Smithsonian's Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Facility at Dulles.

There were seven shuttles built: two are retired (a mockup used to determine clearances of buiding doors, overhead wires and such, and the Enterprise) two were destroyed in flight, and three remain active and are scheduled for retirement after the ISS is finished.

[ginny-t.livejournal.com]

Hee! I can't wait 'til the space shuttle Beagle launches. Canada'll have to make a special arm just for it: the Woodstock. *snoopydances*

[lkk.livejournal.com]

LOL That would be hysterical which is probably why NASA won't do it. The agency has no sense of humor. Its employees do. But the agency as a whole doesn't. Not since they named an Apollo capsule and lander Gumdrop and Spider at any rate. That was the last time any sense of humor was ever allowed to be officially displayed.

[chazriel.livejournal.com]

I am a fan of those U's, but not those "'"s.

[strayfish.livejournal.com]

Is endeavour really not spelled with a U in the States? I didn't think it was one of those "optional" U's...

I also hate those stupid pluralizing apostrophes >_>

[ginny-t.livejournal.com]

dictionary.com has it without the u. Firefox's spellcheck (for what that's worth) doesn't like it with. :/

I just found out about the UK Firefox. I really hope I can switch over without losing all me settings. grr…

If it's something that's not ambiguous, the apostrophe is out: DVDs, not DVD's, frex.

[strayfish.livejournal.com]

> If it's something that's not ambiguous, the apostrophe is out: DVDs, not DVD's, frex.

I knew, just meant I hate it when it IS ambiguous. *is proud of her grammatical talents, even though she doesn't know any of the technical terms*

[ginny-t.livejournal.com]

Ambiguity sucks.

Fancy technical grammatical terms are handy for showing off, but not necessary.