She was also considered the protectress of women during childbirth. The daughter of Zeus and Leto, Artemis was the widely-revered, indomitable Greek goddess of hunting, wild nature and fertility. Ari would be a cute gender-neutral nickname.Īrtemis. She became immortal when she married Dionysus, the god of wine and good times. With a name meaning “very pure,” Ariadne helped Theseus escape the labyrinth in which the fearsome half-bull, half-man resided. The daughter of Crete’s King Minos, Ariadne (eh-rih-AD-nih) is best known for her role in the myth of Theseus and the Minotaur. She sounds like the creative type who is always looking for ways to express herself.
This irresistibly beautiful name literally rolls off the tongue (pronounced a-m-ri-LIS) and means "to sparkle or twinkle" like an eye. So Artemis has a long history preceding it, and a lot to live up to, both mythologically and technologically.Amaryllis. It’s also the name of a constellation made up of the stars Castor and Pollux, keeping up the tradition of mythological connections.)
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(The Gemini program, named and developed later to figure out how to do some of the things that Apollo spacecraft needed to do, gets its name from the Latin word for “twins,” since Gemini missions had 2-person crews. And of course, despite some failures and setbacks, Project Apollo was a success, and went on to land humans on the Moon for the first time on July 20, 1969. Whatever its true origins, NASA went on to approve the name and publicly announced it that summer. Silverstein recalled that he first dropped the name at a … brainstorming session about how to top Mercury. Silverstein’s New York Times obituary lists a far more prosaic reason for the name. And of course, the name follows the same convention of using mythological names he began with Project Mercury.
He said the image of ‘Apollo riding his chariot across the Sun’ was appropriate to the grand scale of the proposed program.” Indeed, Apollo is the god of the Sun - a central figure in mythological astronomy - as well as the god of archery, prophecy, poetry, and music. His NASA bio explains why: “Silverstein chose the name ‘Apollo’ after perusing a book of mythology at home one evening in 1960. Silverstein was again ready with a suggestion: Apollo. It would at least reach the Moon’s orbit, and that meant launching the next great phase of human exploration. Kennedy wouldn’t suggest it to congress for nearly another year, and he wouldn’t make his famous speech on the subject for almost two years - the future mission was still a big deal. While actually landing on the Moon was not yet on the table - President John F. Soon it would be time to dream even bigger.īy 1960, NASA was already making longer term plans. But Mercury was meant to be a first step into space, our very first crewed missions beyond the atmosphere. The powers that be all signed on with Silverstein’s suggestion, and on December 17, 1958, NASA Administrator Keith Glennan announced the name to the public. And, of course, there’s already a planet with that name, lending the word a “spacey” ring. Plus, Hersch writes, it was “a continuation of the American custom of naming rockets after characters in Greco-Roman mythology” - figures like Atlas/Centaur and Saturn.
With his winged cap, winged shoes, eloquence, and ingenuity, Mercury seemed a more fitting namesake. Silverstein had suggested the name “Project Mercury,” in honor of the messenger of the gods in Roman mythology. “Others at NASA feared that this name would draw undue attention to the personalities of the hand-picked aviators whom NASA’s army of engineers would soon blast into space,” writes Matthew Hersch in Inventing the American Astronaut. Gilruth, the head of the agency’s space task group, suggested the name “Project Astronaut.” As noted in Origins of NASA Names, “The term followed the semantic tradition begun with ‘Argonauts,’ the legendary Greeks who traveled far and wide in search of the Golden Fleece, and continued with ‘aeronauts’ -pioneers of balloon flight.” But while the term “astronaut” caught on to describe the human crew members of these missions, Project Astronaut did not. In this competitive context, the right name, which could inspire and motivate, was key. The Soviets had already launched the first artificial satellite, Sputnik I, the previous year all indications were that they would soon launch a human into orbit (which they did in 1961, beating the Americans). found itself engaged in, opposite the U.S.S.R. While scientific exploration was, and continues to be, a prime motivator for NASA’s activities, its formation was also largely the result of the space race that the U.S. As 1958 drew to a close, the newborn agency began considering what to call its efforts.
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