View Single Post
  #5  
Old December 14th 07, 01:23 AM posted to sci.space.history
Pat Flannery
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 18,465
Default New manned Moon lander is named "Altair".



Brian Thorn wrote:
Why call a program "Constellation" if the individual parts are named
for constellations? We already have "Orion". "Aquila" (the Eagle, of
which Altair is the brightest star) or "Aquarius" would have been
better names.


Why are the boosters named after the Greek god of war (Ares), instead of
Aries...which would have been clever, as Orion was the name of the
Pan-Am space clipper, and Aries the name of the spherical Moonship in
the movie "2001".
I'm still suspicious of that Ares name; it's very odd for a civilian
spacecraft, unless the reference is to Mars, the Roman god of war.

Pat