This kind of thing drives me up the wall:
The sitcom’s premise involved a 2,000-year-old genie being rescued by a handsome astronaut, who rubs her bottle after crash landing his shuttle on a beach.
It was a frickin’ capsule, not a “shuttle.”
23 thoughts on “No, They Didn’t Have “Shuttles” In The Sixties”
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“handsome astronaut, who rubs her bottle after crash landing his shuttle on a beach.”
Um Rand, I thought you were running a family-friendly site . . .
Hey, so she liked her bottle rubbed. I report, you decide.
CARACAS — Two employees of the US embassy in Venezuela were shot and wounded early Tuesday in the capital Caracas, in a murky incident that local media and a police source said took place at a strip club.
“Medical staff inform us that their injuries are not life-threatening,” he added, noting that they were hurt at “some sort of a social spot” but without specifying the venue or nature of their injuries . . .
So, this “social spot”, what body part might that be?
Um Rand, I believe it was called a “space craft.” A “capsule” was a way of swallowing some medicine . . .
“Space craft” is too generic. They were capsules then, and they are now. But even putting wings on a vehicle (e.g., Dreamchaser) doesn’t make it a “shuttle.” There will never be another Shuttle. It’s not like “google” or “kleenex.”
Yes, and there will never be another “Enterprise”, nor will there ever be another “Orion”. No wait, there have already been three Orion spacecraft. Well, no more, I’m sure! Also, no more Columbia” “Eagle”, Clipper”, “Intrepid” ,”Aquarius” ,”Kitty Hawk” ,”Antares”,-“Endeavour” ,”Falcon”, or “Challenger”, despite multiple instances. Sure.
Well, maybe not another Snoopy, but I wouldn’t bet on it,
Was this comment intended to have some relevance to anything I wrote?
There will never be another Shuttle.
I predict there will be another “Shuttle”, where the English word shuttle is used as a proper name for a spacecraft. I base my prediction on the lack of originality shown by the names picked in aerospace projects, as well as modern marine projects. I further predict that any bird of prey already used as airplane or spacecraft name will be used again. For example, within a century, there will be another Harrier spacecraft or airplane.
I predict there will be another “Shuttle”, where the English word shuttle is used as a proper name for a spacecraft. I base my prediction on the lack of originality shown by the names picked in aerospace projects, as well as modern marine projects.
One of these things is not like the other. Your comment remains irrelevant to mine.
So, your point was that “shuttle” is not a category description? Buran is often referred to as a shuttle. X-37b is referred to as a “mini shuttle” or “unmanned shuttle”. Hermes is referred to as a “European shuttle” Less often, Hope-X is referred to as a shuttle.
(Oddly, Skylon seems to escape being described as a shuttle more than the others — it gets described as a “spaceplane”. I suppose that’s because of the proposed launch method — HTHL vs VTHL.)
As usual, you can have an opinion about what is right or wrong, or you can just observe how people use their own language.
I think it’s a useless category description, particularly when it is applied to 1960s capsules, and this discussion has absolutely no bearing on the names of individual vehicles. As I said, such sloppy terminology drives me up the wall, and is just a general part of terrible reporting. All of those things are space planes, not “shuttles.”
In modern-day English, “shuttle” co-exists with “airplane”: US Airways and Delta generally operate airplanes, but have Boston-NY shuttles, implying a short trip with frequent service (I think). When we have spacecraft that operate for short frequent trips, we might very well call them shuttles.
In the meantime, I think that for layman, “shuttle” vs “spacesplane” refers to whether the takeoff is vertical. Perhaps also whether the takeoff involves a separate so-large-you-can’t-miss-it launch vehicle, as opposed to a single stage to orbit craft — something that looked like this (but with rockets) might be called a “spaceplane”: http://texasbestgrok.mu.nu/images/xfv-1_300.jpg
… and in other exciting news….
“White Elephant” would be a much more accurate and descriptive term for more than a few vehicles we’ve flown, and would make for a much cuter logo.
Ah, it is bob’s typical “words mean whatever I want them to mean” shtick, so shut-up, you racist.
In the interests of fairness.
*posts picture of a badminton shuttle cock*
*posts picture of a Tylenol capsule*
“Shuttle” or “Shuttle cock” really wouldn’t have been such a bad description for the shape of a Mercury or Gemini, and probably makes more sense than “capsule”. Of course, “road cone” or “dunce cap” isn’t that far off, either.
“Shuttle” really didn’t make much sense for the Space Shuttle other than as a random generic term for “truck” or some other common delivery vehicle.
Rand,
I think this falls under the heading of the average person thinking the ‘thing’ in the topic is called what they grew up calling that type thing.
The writer said shuttle, because it’s the only space vehicle he’s been aware of. Granted it shows a lack of knowledge, but isn’t that the what the typical American shows displays days?
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George,
they were Badminton ‘birdies’ then, it was the 1960’s and you couldn’t say ‘cock’ in mixed company. Not even if it was a bird!
I forgot about that. Perhaps my recent badminton experiences caused me to forget the “birdie”.
As an aside, my housemate set up a badminton court in the back yard and I set up some lights for it. Within a week I was score keeping for a late-night drunken hot lesbian co-ed badminton game where they coached each other with advice like “Don’t be afraid of the cock!”
So yeah, “If you build it, they will come” is quite true, but you can put a baseball diamond in the middle of a corn field and get a bunch of tobacco chewing dead guys, or put up a well lit badminton court near a college campus.
Cool story bro.
This sounds like a sequel to “American Pie: The Naked Mile”. They could call it, “American Pie: Co-Ed Badminton and Cold Beer”
Not that there’s anything wrong with that!
Life here gets stranger. Late last night I decided to walk to the local Shell station for some smokes. The streets were completely empty, but about a block from my house was a delivery truck with its hazard flashers on. As I got closer I noticed it looked like a circus truck or something gypsies might drive in the movies. As I walked past I shielded my eyes from the glare of the streetlight to read the side, which said, “Exotic Dancers”. Hrm… Offer to help a truckload of stranded strippers in the middle of the night, or mind my own business? Without hesitation, I continued walking to the Shell station thinking “nobody would believe this one anyway, so why bother?”
In retrospect, my wisdom came from having learned at an early age that when you find a fancy bottle on the beach, you do not rub it unless you want to spend the rest of your years coping with the insanity that follows.
Besides, the truck was just the mobile party-bar for bachelor parties, driven by a fat dude.
Rand is right, but I’m not sure it’s for the right reason.
“Shuttle” was a concept described by von Braun, and is basically similar to what we call an RLV today. The fact that the Space Transportation System was a horrible RLV is kinda irrelevant. There were no shuttles in the 1960s, but then again, the space program described in I Dream Of Jeanie had a whole bunch of stuff that they didn’t have back then (and some of which we never got).
Capsule vs Spacecraft:
In the book, The Right Stuff, was the portrayal of the Mercury seven astros demanding the thing be called a “spacecraft” rather than a “capsule” an accurate rendition of History>
FWIW, Gemini astros called their craft a “spacecraft”…just last night, I was listening to some voiced over narration of Gemini flight film by the astros themselves and they referred to it a a spacecraft.