Important naming rule: Never call your version 2 "New Foo"!
Because the name will remain long after it was new. The naming scheme also crashes at version 3.
The New Glenn name is from 2016.
Because the name will remain long after it was new. The naming scheme also crashes at version 3.
The New Glenn name is from 2016.
Still a weird naming scheme though. A rocket is not a new astronaut. Am I missing something clever?
Rockets also aren’t planets, and yet: Saturn V
Rockets also aren’t mythological horse/man creatures, and yet: Vulcan Centaur
You’re overthinking it.
Falcon 9 has nine first stage engines, Falcon 1 had a single engine. It's not a version number.
Edit: I had to look it up because Saturn 1 is not a single engine vehicle. It turns out that the Saturn V is design C-5 of the Saturn family of rockets, with A, B and C1-4 designs preceding it (not all designs where built), so the "V" in Saturn V is basically a version number, despite the Saturn V first stage having 5 engines
"Falcon" was almost certainly chosen so the BFR could be pronounced "Big Fucking Rocket", perhaps also influenced by the BFG in Doom/Quake.
Also note how "SpaceX" is pronounced.
The suborbital rocket New Shepard is named after Alan Shepard who was the first American astronaut and whose flight was a suborbital arc.
New Glenn is named after John Glenn whose first flight was the first orbital flight.
There was also talk of a New Armstrong rocket, although Neil Armstrong wasn’t the first American to "reach" the Moon. But then together with Buzz he was the first to land and the first to walk. I don’t know if New Armstrong's still getting developed.