The name SpaceX has been in the news continuously, with very good reason, the company is leading the aerospace industry with rapid reusable rocket boosters landing on drone ships. The engineering logic is sound. One wouldn’t drive a car once and throw it away, fly once then dispose of the plane, or yacht for the day then sink the vessel.
It's time they knew … pic.twitter.com/wt7XfXqTM6
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 18, 2017
SpaceX has won much respect. Engineers watch a booster landing on one of the famous drone ships, “Just Read the Instructions”, “Of Course I Still Love You” or “A Short Fall to Gravitas” and want to apply to work there.
Musk’s companies, with the exception of SpaceX, recruits the best engineers world-wide.
“We recruit great engineers from almost anywhere in the world” — Elon Musk
A Shortfall of Gravitas
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 12, 2018
SpaceX's founder and CEO Elon Musk named the company's drone ships.
The names of OCISLY & JRTI, come from Ian M Banks Culture book series, ‘The Player of Games’, the second book in the series. The SFOG comes from Bank’s book, ‘Look to Windward’.
“Just Read the Instructions” and “Of Course I Still Love You”, are two of the sentient, planet-sized Culture starships which first appear in Bank’s 'The Player of Games,'. They aren’t warships either. They are General Contact Units, a type of ship used primarily for exploration and communication.
@elonmusk ... In honor of IMB, RIP.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 23, 2015
The Culture Series speaks of an,
With the dawn of cyborg-like human tendencies, Neuralink and AI, the books speak to a more peaceable civilization of coexistence with sentient technology.
There are also examples of Musk naming other ships after poems, books or song inspirations ie ..
SpaceX Falcon rockets are named after the Millennium Falcon, a smaller spaceship in the movie series "Star Wars".
The Dragon capsule that sits on top of the Falcon rocket when doing ISS missions, is named after "Puff the Magic Dragon," a popular song from the 1960s group ‘Peter, Paul and Mary’. The capsule lands in the ocean after a full flight mission success.
“Puff the magic Dragon lived by the sea ..” (line from the song ‘Puff the Magic Dragon’.)
Many scoffed at Elon for these magical feats of engineering, but SpaceX just keeps getting better like ‘The Little Engine that Could’.
Was originally called Puff the Magic Dragon, as people said I was high if though it could work, so I named it after their insult.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 17, 2018
Or at least the closest thing to magic that exists in the real world
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 29, 2018
It’s not surprising to find that the Mars designed Superheavy Starship, will be named “Heart of Gold”, from Douglas Adams’ ‘The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy’. (Superheavy will have a very large 1st stage booster with the Starship sitting atop that.)
Personally, I am looking forward to more literary inspired names for Musk’s companies as we reach further out into the stars.
It’s time people knew, it’s just all so beautifully poetic.
(Pics from SpaceX)
