Future astronauts might say, 'œHouston, the Altair has landed!'

William Atkins
Friday, 14 December 2007 18:48

Science - Space

According to Space.com, NASA Altair project manager Lauri Hansen stated, “Altair is the brightest star in the constellation Aquila and is the twelfth brightest star in the night sky. The word 'Altair' finds its origins in Arabic and is derived from a phrase that means 'the flying one’. In Latin, 'Aquila' means Eagle, tying our new lander to the historic Apollo 11 Eagle."

Hansen, of course, was referring to the first human landing on the Moon, of Apollo 11, on July 20, 1969. At that time, the first words on the surface of the Moon came from Neil Armstrong who said, “Houston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed."

The Altair project’s triangular shaped logo takes much of its features from the Apollo 11 patch.
 
Both patches show a bald eagle holding an olive branch in its talons. The Altair version spells out the name “Altair” at the bottom. Ten stars appear in the background of the logo, each representing one of the ten NASA centers participating with the United States quest to return humans to our closest neighbor, the  Moon.

The logo appears at: http://www.collectspace.com/news/news-121307a.html.

A comparison between the Altair logo and the Eagle logo also appears at this site, along with logos for Project Constellation, Orion, and Ares.