perfidy

J,
Good point.

"SpaceShipOne" has none of the panache of "Nina", "Pinta, "Santa Maria"; martial spirit of the Anglo naval tradition, ie "Repulse", "Warrior", Dreadnought"; or historical attachment in the American tradition, ie "Lexington", "Ronald Reagan", "The Sullivan Brothers".

"SpaceShipOne" has no inspiration to it, no zazz, and I think that's a bit of a letdown. No, it's not enough to change the way space misisons are conducted. It should sound cool too. "Red Rider"'s not bad, with a baby boomer sort of ring to it. I don't know what Rutan should have called it, and I'm not advocating for seeking inspiration in ancient mythologies or personalities for names. But "SpaceShipOne"- he never even tried!

Letting my geek flag fly, I go with Star Trek: First Contact. Rutan ought to call his ship *Phoenix*, and I hope to heck he's got "Magic Carpet Ride" playing on the flight deck.

Ken,
Wow, let it fly. "Star Trek" is about as geeky a thing as there is, and marrying fantasy to the geeky reality of real space flight is a bold and uber-geeky thing to do. Own it, sister!

"Phoenix"..."Phoenix"....not sure I'm diggin' it. I like it, but there may be a better one.

My first instinct would be something to really stick it to terrorists somehow. Like, the Jew Star.

The Intrepid
The Reliant
The Werner von Braun
The Robert Goddard
The Duct Tape Warrior
The Good Enough
The Faster Cheaper

Lots of good named. "SpaceShipOne" not so much.

I like the people angle. Von Braun might not wash well for a variety of reasons, but I'm digging Goddard. We can go [insert astronaut here], just as easily as [insert influential luminary here].

Where's Buckethead on this? Maybe he can explain why the Rutan Clan went with the uninspiring "SpaceShipOne"...?

Rutan Clan, heh.

I can't imagine why they went with such a lackluster (in a very literal sense) name.

If they really wanted to stick it to NASA, "FasterCheaperBetter" would be the monicker of choice. As far as the trek/geeky thing, we kind of did that with the Shuttle Enterprise, now at the Air and Space Museum Annex at Dulle airport. Of course, they had the protective coloring of previous USN ships with that illustrious name.

Goddard would be a great choice, IMHO. GL, your last suggestion reminds me too much of Mel Brooks' History of the World, Part I. The end - where they show the previews of the sequel. "Jews in Space!" With the Star of David spaceships and beanies and everything.

For all the gracelessness of the name, at least they didn't follow the extant naming conventions for football stadiums...