More Details About Why NASA Spell's "Endeavour " with a "u"

NASA's Endeavour

NASA got slightly spanked last week for misspelling "Endeavor" on a banner celebrating the upcoming launch of their orbiter of the same name.

They left out the "u".

A new banner with the proper spelling was installed within an hour or so.

Usually, there's nothing wrong with spelling "endeavor" it the "American" way as they did, without the "u", but there's a specific context for the name of the NASA orbiter; it was named after another specific, very historic ship, "The HM Bark Endeavour", commanded by 18th century explorer Captain James Cook. And NASA ought to know, since the same name was previously used by NASA for the Command Module of Apollo 15.

Well, it's not faulty rocket science, it's just faulty spelling. Hope it's not an omen!

OK, I know what bark is on trees, and my dogs certainly bark a lot, but in this context, in terms of ships, I had to look up what "bark" means. After hours of research on all this I can report that the meaning of "bark" is not the simplest thing to pin down.

For one thing, the meaning started out pretty doggone vague in the first place ("any sailing ship that didn't fit into the usual catagories"; they might as well have called it a "whatchamacallit ship" or a "thingamajig boat".) Regardless, by the end of the 18th century, the meaning of a "bark" had evolved to the more specific "any type of sailing boat with a certain configuration of sails; three (or more) masts, fore-and-aft sails on the aftermost mast and square sails on all other masts".

Ah, that's better.

The HM Bark Endeavor, after it had been re-fitted for exploration and commisioned by the Royal Navy, was a flat-bottomed boat with a plain bluff bow and a full stern with windows. It had originally been a "collier" (a merchant coal-carrier) and as such was named "Earl of Pembroke", before it was re-fitted as a bark. This newly innovated ship was thought to be ideal for exploration because it could maneuver through shallow waters, was designed to be beached, and needed a smaller crew.

This is a replica of the HM Bark Endeavour

The HM Bark Endeavour's first journey was supposedly to meticulously chart the planet Venus' 1769 transit across the sun. And they were expected to do that, but the trip was really a cover for exploration and possible colonization; the true mission was to search for "Terra Australis Incognita" (a.k.a. "unknown southern land") and to buy or claim it for England if possible.

Here's a link to the secret orders to Captain Cook: http://www.foundingdocs.gov.au/resources/transcripts/nsw1_doc_1768.pdf

As for NASA's "Endeavour", the upcoming STS-118 mission will be the 22nd flight to the International Space Station and first flight for Endeavour since 2002.

Launch is targeted for the evening of Aug. 7. Happy Landings!