Space shuttle Apollo, Columbia, Atlantis etc. are among some of the spacecrafts of NASA.
But have you ever wondered how NASA names these shuttles!
These names are decided by a group through a rigorous process and this group is as old as NASA itself.
A point in case is Apollo 11 that landed on the moon July 20, 1969 carrying Neil A. Armstrong, Michael Collins and Edwin E. Aldrin Jr. creating history in the process.
According to NASA, the name was given by Silverstein, director of Space Flight Development in 1960. According to religious belief, Apollo was a Greek god, son of Zeus and Leto.
In 1960, the first naming committee was established at NASA headquarters and NASA officials got the opportunities to choose the name. Selected names were studied and then the best one was chosen.
Later, NASA formulated a new naming policy. Accordingly to this, the name of the spacecraft or mission should be simple and easy to understand.
