Spacecraft naming
Spacecraft and their missions are given descriptive, sometimes technical names, by scientists, engineers and administrators involved. Space agencies sometimes open the naming up to the public or to school children in the form of essay contests. Lunar missions. Gravity Recovery And Interior Laboratory. The entry from Ms. Nina DiMauro's class at Emily Dickinson Elementary School in Bozeman, Montana suggesting Ebb and Flow for the twin spacecraft was chosen from entries from 900 classrooms in 45 states. Maria Zuber, principal investigator on the mission commented on the student's research before selecting the names and its appropriateness for  a mission measuring gravity. Mars missions. Mars Pathfinder. The name "Sojourner" was chosen for the Mars Pathfinder rover after a year-long, worldwide competition in which students up to 18 years old were invited to select a heroine and submit an essay about her historical accomplishments. The students were asked to address in their essays how a planetary rover named for their heroine would translate these accomplishments to the Martian environment. Initiated in March 1994 by The Planetary Society of Pasadena, California, in cooperation with NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), the contest got under way with an announcement in  the January 1995 issue of the National Science Teachers Association's magazine "Science and Children", circulated to 20,000 teachers and schools across the nation. The winning essay suggested naming the rover for Sojourner Truth was selected from among 3500 essays in a NASA/JPL sponsored contest on a heroine and her accomplishments. The essay selected was by then 12 year old Valerie Ambroise of Bridgeport, CT. The second place prize winner was Deepti Rohatgi, 18, of Rockville, MD, who suggested Marie Curie. Other popular suggestions included Sacajewea and Amelia Earhart. Mars Exploration Rovers. During development and construction, the rovers were  known as MER-1 ("Opportunity") and MER-2 ("Spirit"). Internally, NASA also uses the mission designations MER-A ("Spirit") and MER-B ("Opportunity") based on the order of landing on Mars ("Spirit" first then "Opportunity"). The rovers were named through a student essay competition sponsored by NASA, the Planetary Society and Lego. The winning entry was by Sofi Collis, a third-grade Russian-American student from Arizona, who named both rovers. Mars Science Laboratory. The mission is known as the Mars Science Laboratory. The rover vehicle was named through an essay contest. Finalist names were ranked by the public between March 23–29 , 2009 from among Adventure, Amelia, Journey, Perception, Pursuit, Sunrise, Vision, Wonder, and Curiosity. through a public poll on the NASA website. On May 27, 2009, the winning name was announced to be "Curiosity" from the winning essay by Clara Ma, then a sixth-grader from Kansas. Space Shuttle orbiters. The working name of "space shuttle" was used throughout the program and spacecraft's development and construction. However, Peter Flanigan, Assistant to the President and Assistant to the President for International Economic Affairs to then President Nixon, expressed concern that the word "shuttle" brought to mind 2nd class travel and suggested  instead words like "Space Clipper", "Pegasus", and "Starlighter." Shortly after Nixon cemented the "space shuttle" program name in a January 1972 memo announcing the program would proceed. Section::::"Enterprise". Originally to be named "Constitution" and unveiled on Constitution Day, September 17, 1976, a letter-writing campaign by Trekkies to then President Gerald Ford asked that the orbiter be named after the Starship "Enterprise", featured on the television show "". Although Ford did not mention the campaign, instead saying he was "partial to the name" "Enterprise", he directed NASA officials to change the name. Section::::"Columbia". "Columbia" was named for the historical poetic name  for the United States of America, like the explorer ship of Captain Robert Gray and the Command Module of Apollo 11, the first crewed landing on another celestial body. Section::::"Atlantis". "Atlantis" was named after the mythical lost city of Atlantis, described by Plato as where Atlas was located. Section::::"Endeavour". The competition began in 1988 and the winning name was announced on May 10, 1989. Contest guidelines had students select a name based on an exploratory or research sea vessel, HMS "Endeavour" was the overwhelming selection among the 6,154.