On Mon, 07 Jul 2003 04:41:16 -0500, Unclaimed Mysteries
wrote:

So, I hear NASA policy is to name spacecraft after motivational posters.
Excellent.

A much-needed symbolic antidote to the liberal Clinton years, when we
had to put up with spacecraft having liberal PC names like "Sojourner."

"Spirit" and "Opportunity" were names chosen in a national school
contest.

So was "Sojourner".

http://www.spaceflightnow.com/mars/mera/status2.html

1421 GMT (10:21 a.m. EDT)

NASA's twin Mars Exploration Rover have been named Spirit and
Opportunity following a contest by schoolchildren. Sofi Collis, a
9-year old third grader from Scottsdale, Arizona, submitted the
winning suggestion among nearly 10,000 contest entries. Born in
Siberia, Sofi was adopted and moved the United States when she was two
years old.

The naming contest was managed for NASA by the LEGO Company.


Brian