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Comment by placardloop | Hacker News Reader

Rockets aren’t birds either, and yet: Falcon 9 (the Falcon 9 also is the second iteration of the Falcon rockets, not the ninth, so…)

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.

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>(the Falcon 9 also is the second iteration of the Falcon rockets, not the ninth, so…)

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

Yes, it not being a version number is the entire point of this thread.

Side note:

"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 "Falcon" name dates back to many years before the BFR concept. Then the BFR started out as "Big Fucking Rocket" and the F was retroactively changed to Falcon as a tongue in cheek way of keeping the acronym in respectable conversation. That said, BFR was always just a descriptive placeholder.

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