I don't know, my mind went to the messaging system that's being deployed now, instead of an ancient VCS. There are only 14k possible three-letter acronyms anyway.
You only have to go as far as 'CQK' before there is, AFAICT and based on Wikipedia entries, essentially no even slightly important use of a TLA. There are then another >2k more or less unused, and if you go to four-letters, you've got ~390k to play with.
Although I suppose the headline doesn’t make much sense in that context - spacecraft systems are rarely in a “confusing state” (except maybe Boeing Starliner)