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Comment by dotnet00 | Hacker News Reader

I only live close enough to be able to see Enterprise, which didn't go to space, but I like to go there at least once a year, just because seeing the sheer size of it and knowing that all the Shuttles were like that is inspiring (the SR-71 helps too). I'm planning a trip to the space coast when family visits next year though.

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The SR-71 in the Richmond Science museum was even more impressive to me than the Saturn V. The thing is _huge_ with a tiny cabin.

Man I hope Musk names one of the Starships Enterprise.

Bet he will

He doesn't give many Star Trek vibes though. Space Socialism isn't really his thing.

What he could do (and Blue Danube yesterday gave me the idea) is to buy the PanAm brand and do a rebrand of the crew services at least to the ISS.

I could definitely see Musk getting into Make Pan American Great Again.

Please don't ruin it ;-)

The Pan Am brand has passed through at least one or two low-cost regional airlines.

Yeah, but we don’t need a Make PanAm Great Again thing.

Sorry, we all have to stick to what we’re good at.

The SpaceX drone ships are named after spacecraft from The Culture series by Iain Bank. The Culture is very much a socialist post-scarcity civilization where intelligent machines do all the work and most people apparently just party or do passion projects.

Like Star Trek, most of the action occurs where this civilization comes in contact with its barbaric neighbors. Unlike Star Trek, The Culture is very keen on interventionism and many of its characters volunteer for these dangerous foreign assignments because of their ennui/restlessness with their utopian society.

Musk's private wealth management firm, Excession LLC, is also based on the series.

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