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Whatever it was, I think they fixed it. On a similar note: Falcon, Merlin, Kestrel, and Dragon: Not the Victorian virtues—Enterprise, Endeavor, Discovery—hono
by readerrrr 12y ago
Whatever it was, I think they fixed it.
On a similar note:
Falcon, Merlin, Kestrel, and Dragon: Not the Victorian virtues—Enterprise, Endeavor, Discovery—honored by the space shuttles they replace, nor competitor NASA’s classical Atlas, Orion, Apollo, and Saturn. SpaceX’s machines were made by people who read pulp fantasy novels as children, or the paperback science fiction of Musk’s childhood in Pretoria, South Africa
will do the same job but at more than half again the cost—some $4.2 billion.
This isn't English. Who writes like this?
- furyg3 12y ago"More than half again the cost" was clear to me, although my feeling is that this is a bit antiquated (possibly still used in England?). I would probably write "one and a half times".
- rst 12y agoActually, you quoted the misspelling. The shuttle's name is spelled "Endeavour" -- it's named after a British ship (Captain Cook's).
- rbirkby 12y agoTen out of ten.
- dragonwriter 12y agoAlso, "Enterprise" was only very indirectly named for a "Victorian virtue". It was directly named from scifi -- specifically, the petition campaign for the shuttle to be named "Enterprise" (the original planned name was "Constitution") was driven by Star Trek fandom.
- leoc 12y agoAnd of the four SpaceX engine names, only Dragon is unambiguously a fantasy or mythological name at all. 'Merlin' is the name of a bird https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merlin_(bird) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merlin_(bird) just as 'Falcon' and 'Kestrel' are. It's also the name of one of the most famous aero engines ever https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rolls-Royce_Merlin https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rolls-Royce_Merlin .
- readerrrr 12y agoThere is some information floating around the web, names like Millennium Falcon and Puff the Magic Dragon, but I don't remember Musk saying anything about them.
- leoc 12y agoIt's a little stilted, maybe, but I see much worse written English than this all the time.