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47 years ago, the term ‘Space Shuttle’ almost didn’t happen

White House staffers and NASA had agreed on a different name for the vehicle used for space transportation.

There have been some pretty profound journeys made on space shuttles over the last five decades in the United States.

But, if NASA had its way in 1972, those voyages might have been made on Space Clippers.

According to a presidential memo from Jan. 4, 1972, dug up by presidential historian and author Michael Beschloss, President Richard Nixon and his aides were debating a name for a new space transportation system.

NASA and White House staffers alike had agreed on the term “Space Clipper.” Other proposed names included Pegasus, Hermes, Astroplane, and Skylark, according to NASA.

Peter Flanigan, a special assistant to President Nixon, wrote that the word shuttle “has a connotation of second-class travel and lacks excitement.”

And, according to NASA’s online history, a draft of Nixon’s Jan. 5 speech about the space program even used the term Space Clipper.

Nixon, though, decided that it would be better to refer to the vehicle in the usual fashion, as the ‘Space Shuttle,’” according to NASA. He referenced the “space shuttle” seven times in the speech, and NASA administrator James C. Fletcher used the term eight times, according to text of the speech also posted by NASA.

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