Process of naming missions/rockets?

[Pingonaut]

How exactly does it work? Like how Apollo skipped so many mission numbers, (I assume for testing, but I need more info, point of the thread), and with Freedom 7, Saturn 5, etc. How do they choose the numbers, and what do they name test crafts (when they test certain aspects of a rocket, they name it, right?)

Thanks!

[Nibb31]

Each program has its own numbering scheme.

Apollo didn't actually skip numbers, it changed its numbering system during the program.

Apollo 1 was named retroactively to honor the astronauts killed by the fire. The actual mission would have been AS204, but the accident occured during a ground test among many others.

The first actual flights were AS201, AS202, and AS203, which were unmanned tests of the CSM and S-IVB launched with a S-1B. AS stands for Apollo-Saturn, and 2xx means S-1B. The S-V flights were supposed to be numbered AS5xx.

They changed the numbering system for AS501 (the first unmanned flight of the Saturn V) to Apollo 4.

After that, Apollo 5 to 6 were unmanned tests, Apollo 7 to 10 were the first manned flight tests in LEO and around the Moon, and Apollo 11 to 17 are the well-documented lunar landings.

Saturn V is just the name of the rocket chosen by Von Braun. There were lots of iterations in the development of the Saturn family, with S-I, S-IB and S-V being actual rockets, and S-IC and S-II being rocket stages and the S-IVB being the TLI stage... I'm not sure how those numbers came up, but they are probably a mix of design iterations and variants.

For the Mercury program, the official names of the missions were Mercury-Redston (MR-x) and Mercury-Atlas (MA-x). The astronauts each named their capsules with callsigns such as Faith-7, Freedom-7 or Sigma-7. The 7 was because there were 7 astronauts in the space program at the time. The tradition of the astronauts naming their spacecraft ended with Gemini, but resumed with Apollo (with names like Spider and Gumdrop, or Snoopy and Charlie Brown, and of course Eagle and Columbia).

The Gemini missions were simply numbered from 1 to 12 (officially from I to XII).

Edited July 26, 2013 by Nibb31

[Pingonaut]

Wow, thanks Nibb. It's a lot more complicated than I thought! So what would the process be for someone (start the finish) designing, testing and launching a mission to send one man into space?

[Kryten]

Depends on if 'space' is just suborbit, or you're talking about an orbital craft.

[Pingonaut]

Depends on if 'space' is just suborbit, or you're talking about an orbital craft.

Orbital craft.

[Kryten]

First you need to produce a functional rocket. You may or may not start with suborbital tests; they're only really necessary if it's a completely new rocket (e.g. Saturn) rather than a modified existing one (E.g. Atlas, Vostok, LM-2F). After that (or first) you do a test where you put something like your spacecraft in orbit with the crew-rated version of your launcher; given it's a rocket test, you only really need a payload with about the same weight and shape as the planned spacecraft. Then launch test versions of the spacecraft, slowly increasing the functionality after what's been added previously has been fully tested; e.g. launch one with a working heat-shield, then add life support after that's sorted. Once you've got all of your systems working, do a full uncrewed rehearsal of the first crewed mission, preferably with some animals to fully test the life support.

Then, you launch the guy into space. Easy as that.

[Pingonaut]

First you need to produce a functional rocket. You may or may not start with suborbital tests; they're only really necessary if it's a completely new rocket (e.g. Saturn) rather than a modified existing one (E.g. Atlas, Vostok, LM-2F). After that (or first) you do a test where you put something like your spacecraft in orbit with the crew-rated version of your launcher; given it's a rocket test, you only really need a payload with about the same weight and shape as the planned spacecraft. Then launch test versions of the spacecraft, slowly increasing the functionality after what's been added previously has been fully tested; e.g. launch one with a working heat-shield, then add life support after that's sorted. Once you've got all of your systems working, do a full uncrewed rehearsal of the first crewed mission, preferably with some animals to fully test the life support.

Then, you launch the guy into space. Easy as that.

My question is not the process, it's the naming process included with that process.

[Kryten]

Depends what precedent you follow. The Chinese simply gave everything from the rocket test onwards a program designation (i.e. Shenzhou X), while the Soviets/ gave all of the orbital test missions Kosmos designations (used for every orbital flight not in another named program) and only gave program designations to actual crewed missions. Even crewed missions that were unsuccessful weren't given real designations-for example, the mission between Soyuz-17 and Soyuz-18 that failed to orbit was referred to solely as 'the April 5th anomaly'.

[Pingonaut]

Depends what precedent you follow. The Chinese simply gave everything from the rocket test onwards a program designation (i.e. Shenzhou X), while the Soviets/ gave all of the orbital test missions Kosmos designations (used for every orbital flight not in another named program) and only gave program designations to actual crewed missions. Even crewed missions that were unsuccessful weren't given real designations-for example, the mission between Soyuz-17 and Soyuz-18 that failed to orbit was referred to solely as 'the April 5th anomaly'.

And NASA just chose whether or not it counts at random, excluding Apollo 1?

[Kryten]

Well, NASA varied between programs, as Nibb's already explained. Mercury and Gemini gave all of the missions program designations, while Apollo gave them to only the crewed missions-but took uncrewed missions into account in the mission number.

[Pingonaut]

Well, NASA varied between programs, as Nibb's already explained. Mercury and Gemini gave all of the missions program designations, while Apollo gave them to only the crewed missions-but took uncrewed missions into account in the mission number.

So they must not have done too many unmanned tests? What do they name the normal tests, like testing the rocket on the pad, seeing if it burns, if the SAS works, etc.

[The Jedi Master]

That's weird. I always thought they just came up with an awesome name for a project and added an extra number to the end for each launch.

[Kryten]

So they must not have done too many unmanned tests? What do they name the normal tests, like testing the rocket on the pad, seeing if it burns, if the SAS works, etc.

Those designations are pretty much a mess. You've the test of the abort system on the pad, which were just called 'Pad Abort Test X', the in-flight abort motor tests, which were called 'A-000X', the rocket test flights which were called 'SA-X', the tests of the unmanned spacecraft which went from 'A-10X' to 'AS 20X' to 'Apollo X' as more systems were added...