A new Enterprise

[Alelou]

Virgin Galactic unveils commercial spaceship: http://www.rr.com/news/topic/article/rr ... _spaceship

An official rollout for potential space tourists, dignitaries and other VIPs was slated for later Monday. California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson were expected to christen the ship "Enterprise."

[JadziaKathryn]

Thus proving once and for all that Trek is superior to Star Wars. Nobody is naming it... what's that Star Wars ship?

[Distracted]

I guess it's because "Millenium Falcon" is a stupid name for a space ship.

[enterprikayak]

Also the millenium is so played. from a marketing standpoint.


ahhhh....remember Y2Not? Talk about the biggest thing to never happen ever. Hard to believe that that mass hysteria was only ten years ago.

[Kevin Thomas Riley]

Well, the private SpaceX company are developing rockets called if not Millenium Falcon then at least just Falcon, the latest called Falcon 9.

[enterprikayak]

See? They had to lose the "millenium" part. Cause the millenium's for nerds now. Not cool nerds like us, either. Nerdy nerds.

[Alelou]

Speaking of Y2K as the start of the last decade, you might enjoy at least the opening of this article:
The '00s: Goodbye (at Last) to the Decade from Hell

It's very U.S.-centric, so actually everyone else could read this and feel smug.

[Kevin Thomas Riley]

^ I'm going to be a besserwisser and say that this decade still has one year left to go before it ends (in the same way as it didn't start until January 1st 2001). So there!

[WarpGirl]

WOAH! We SW's nerds have feelings too. But it's even harder for Trekkie/SW's nerds, because we're regarded as traitors by people by both sides. Besides, the Falcon is AWESOME! And so are all the Star Trek ships. Can't we all just get along?

[JadziaKathryn]

We can. I jest. Although I stand by Enterprise being a superior name for a ship.

[WarpGirl]

Well it depends on the imagery. If you automatically think Archer when you hear Enterprise, and Han Solo when you hear Falcon than I'd say Falcon is superior. HOWEVER, it all depends on the first image to come to mind.

[Kevin Thomas Riley]

Obviously the first name one thinks of when hearing the word "Enterprise" is Kirk. Certainly not Archer... Ugh!

[Asso]

Obviously the first name one thinks of when hearing the word "Enterprise" is Kirk. Certainly not Archer... Ugh!

Naturally.

[Linda]

And as Picard said in - I think it was the movie First Contact, and I forgot the exact words, someone is looking out for or protecting ships named Enterprise. Except for Enterprise B (or was it A?), I think it was that died protecting a Klingon station. And oh yeah, the original starship Enterprise which Kirk blew up. And Enterprise D which half blew up and half crash landed on a planet. At least two of the Enterprises died in battle, which I guess is better than being scrapped or even put in a museum. Uh, I think I will take it back about Picard's statement being true. Anyway, anyone know the entire history of ships named Enterprise from sailing ships through Enterprise E (and the mention of Xindi on Enterprise J)? There was a space shuttle named Enterprise but it never was meant to actually fly.

Start of an outline of Enterprise ships - someone else please fill in:

British sailing ship Enterprise
U. S. aircraft carrier Enterprise
Space shuttle Enterprise
Civilian space ship (Space Ship 2?) Enterprise
Enterprise - original starship
Enterprise A
Enterprise B
Enterprise C
Enterprise D
Enterprise E
(Enterprise F, G, H, I)?
Enterprise J - in StarTrek: Enterprise Daniels mentions a future with Xindi crew on this ship

[Alelou]

Ah hah, that's local history around here! There was an originally British ship sailing Lake Champlain between NY and VT that became one of the first American ships during the Revolution:

"Arnold immediately assumed command of Liberty when the schooner arrived at Ticonderoga and embarked for St. Johns, Canada, at the northern end of the lake. There he surprised and captured the “King’s sloop” Betsy. Arnold renamed the sloop Enterprise and confidently reported, “At present, we are Masters of the Lake.” Thus, just over a year before the signing of the Declaration of Independence, American forces on Lake Champlain were in complete control of a water highway that led directly into the heart of Quebec. To capitalize on their strategic advantage, the Americans made immediate plans to invade Canada."

(Which was a big mistake, but Enterprise nonetheless came in handy in defeating the British.)

Source: http://www.lcmm.org/shipwrecks_history/ ... lution.htm