Photo: SpaceOffshore
SpaceX is renaming its Dragon recovery ships to celebrate two female astronauts.
The names on SpaceX’s Dragon recovery ships have been painted over, with the company set to rename them, Megan and Shannon, after the company’s first two female astronauts, according to @SpaceOffshore.
The post also points out that the change comes just six months after SpaceX named these recovery ships Bob and Doug.
This news comes sixth months after SpaceX chose to name their two new support vessels Bob and Doug.
I can't see any ownership paperwork filed but Searcher and Navigator are no longer listed on the Guice Offshore (GO) website. I would suspect SpaceX has bought the ships from GO.
— Gav Cornwell (@SpaceOffshore) February 5, 2022
The new vessel names are were discovered as registered with the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) to be Megan and Shannon, though the names have not yet been physically added to the ships.
Shannon Walker was on the SpaceX Crew-1 mission (November 2020), while Megan McArthur was on the SpaceX Crew-2 mission (April 2021), with both spaceflights aboard the company’s Crew Dragon capsule to the International Space Station.
It’s also suspected that SpaceX has purchased the ships from Guice Offshore (GO), as they’re no longer listed on the organization’s website.
SpaceX is hoping to pull off 52 launches throughout 2022, averaging a rate of one launch per week.
According to SpaceX Head Elon Musk, the company will hold a presentation for its Starship spacecraft on Thursday, set to begin at 8 p.m. EST.
Close-ups on Sunday showed SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket booster launching and performing stage separation before landing once again.
