Should The Orion Missions Be Called EM Or Orion?

[Nicholander]

Sorry if the title is confusing, but after looking up some stuff on Wikipedia because boredom, I noticed that the manned Orion missions will be called "EM" (Exploration Mission) instead of "Orion" (Like "Apollo 11", or "Gemini 3"). I find this kind of stupid, though for the Shuttle it was fine, as "Shuttle 1" doesn't sound good, so STS-1 was selected instead, but I find it stupid for NASA to be having an abbreviation for the names of their Orion missions. Orion is as good as a name as Apollo, and I think "Orion 1" would be perfect, and a bit of a reference to the glory days of Apollo. Also, for example, if the first human mission to Mars is done by NASA, would you think it was fine if we remembered it as "EM-14" instead of "Orion 14"? It sound stupid, and is nowhere near as good sounding and rememberable as "Apollo 11".

tl;dr: I think "EM" sounds stupid and "Orion" sound completely better.

[RogueMason]

I'd definitely prefer the likes of 'Orion x' as opposed to 'EM x' as it is more in keeping with what appears to be tradition. That being said, I wouldn't mind a hybrid name like 'Orion EM x' or 'EM Orion x', if NASA really wants to go down the route of including the 'EM' in the mission names.

[xenomorph555]

Orion, I like the epic names!

[Justy]

There's a ferry service that runs between mainland British Columbia, Canada and Vancouver Island. There's roughly a dozen sailings a day on each of the three most important routes. At the very moment I'm typing this, the MV Queen of Oak Bay is making a westbound trip. We don't call it BC Ferries Voyage #368785, it's just the Saturday 8pm sailing to Nanaimo, a trip that the Queen of Oak Bay has made regularly and reliably since she was built in '81. Well, except for that time she sank more boats than the entire Canadian Navy since the end of WW2.

That's what I want space travel to be. Flights should be so frequent that the launch schedule should look like the page in any port city's newspaper that lists the arrivals and departures of ships.

SPACE STATION FREEDOM SHIPPING REPORT - ALL TIMES UTC - TODAY:

Capsule 'Pete Conrad,' USA, passengers, from Kennedy, arriving berth 2 at 17:30.

OTV 'Tsiolkovsky,' Russia, water and hydrazine, for OPSEK, departing berth 5 at 19:00.

TOMORROW:

OTV 'Turtle 2', USA, maintenance, for James Webb Space Telescope, departing berth 1 at 09:00.

Capsule 'Pete Conrad,' USA, passengers, for Kennedy, departing berth 2 at 11:00.

Spaceplane 'Silver Dart,' Canada, robot parts, from Gander, arriving berth 1 at 13:00 9:30 in Newfoundland.

OTV 'Turtle 7,' USA, robot parts, for L5, departing berth 3 at 16:30.

Etc, etc, etc.

[No one]

I think that it's perfectly fine to name the missions different to the spacecraft, but EM is a ....ty name and Orion is an awesome name.

That said, I'm sorta glad they're not naming the missions "Orion" because every time I hear Orion I think nuclear pulse propulsion. I've never heard of an Apollo program other than the one that landed us on the moon. Imagine if the nuclear pulse propulsion was also called "Apollo" and every time someone said "Apollo" it was unclear if they were referring to nuclear propulsion or the moon landing. On the other hand, given how ....ty a name EM is, the missions will probably be referred to as Orion missions quite a lot.

[Nicholander]

Well, we haven't got to that point yet unfortunately, and in the mean time when manned missions only happen 2-3 times a year, we should stick with the "x-z" where x is the name of the type of spacecraft and z is the mission number.

[Nicholander]

no one, I still think it should be Orion, though some people would confuse them, the nuclear one is old, never flew, and has no hope of flying in a million years.

[No one]

no one, I still think it should be Orion, though some people would confuse them, the nuclear one is old, never flew, and has no hope of flying in a million years.

It didn't fly, but it still gets talked about a lot for a canceled idea which never flew. I think that Orion is a good name, but I think that the nuclear Orion is well-known enough that the name "Orion" has already been used. (Though this would only really be a problem if the current Orion did something really significant like land on Mars or something. But isn't that their plan?)