Wait really? They named it after Asterix? Huh. Now thats a fun fact to learn.
Raedwulf1 on
Canada had Alouette 1 in ’62
ColonialBarbarian on
France:
What’s the first living being we should send into space? A man? no. A chimp? been there done that. A dog? boring and they taste funny when you cook them.
We’re sending: a fucking cat! that we will euthanize after actually managing to bring back to earth alive and well.
Crocodoro on
I think it’s original and quite french. And it gives value to the comic, a genre quite underrated although several generations grew and learnt from Astérix and Obélix
Uomodelmonte86 on
UK wasted the opportunity for Satellity McSatelliteface
Malina_Bell_312 on
Fun fact: literal translation for “Спутник” would be “companion, fellow traveller.” Like satellite is traveling through space along with Earth
Historical_Sugar9637 on
It kinda fits, considering the name Asterix is kind a pun on Asterisk (which itself derives from “small star”) and composed of Aster (star) and the reconstructed word *rix (king, which also has an asterisk to mark it as a reconstructed word)
So it can be interpreted as “star king” or “little star king, very fitting for a satellite.
Gidi6 on
Then you get South Africa in 1999 – **SUNSAT** (Stellenbosch University Satellite)
Hethsegew on
Masat was the first Hungarian satellite, pronounced “maszat” meaning “smudge” while the name actually came from “Magyar Satellite”.
OttoVon_Biscuit on
India 🇮🇳 : We are gonna name it after our first known astronomer “ARYABHATA”
I prefer our (UK) current communications satellite. Skynet. Nothing bad could ever happen to a system that can be used to send the launch signal for the UKs defence capabilities with a name like Skynet.
OStO_Cartography on
Well, of course, or bien-sûr I should say.
Astérix derives from the Latin ‘Astrum’ meaning ‘star’.
shumpitostick on
Honestly they are all good. Even “Satellite 1” is pretty good when it is the first satellite ever. Soviet Union just went to space and said “first”
MIG2149077 on
The Gauls: “WTF is France? And why are they speaking in Latin?”
BrokenTorpedo on
“The East is Red #1”
Volotor on
If here referencing fictional characters for space missions, the Artemis II mission control had a plushie of the Sailor Moon character Artemis.
CLUNTMUNGMEISTER on
I’m so cooked, when I read the Chinese name the Mao song played in my head
TheDwarvenGuy on
To be fair, “satelite 1” has aura when it’s literally “satellite 1”
A_HECKIN_DOGGO on
Dumb question, but why does China have such “formal” or “indirect” names for a lot of things like this? What was the thought process for naming a satellite “The East is Red” instead of just “Chinese Satellite 1” or something similar.
Lvcivs2311 on
The story as I remember reading it was that the satellite’s official name was simply A1, but the astronomers had affectionately nicknamed it Asterix. Writer René Goscinny learned about this. When he later met a French minister, he expressed his gratitude for the honour. The minister was very confused and had no idea what Goscinny was talking about. So he did what humourless officials at that time did and decided to hold an investigation about what was going on here. The committee’s conclusion was that astronomy was “a too serious thing to be involved with comic book characters” and the use of further comic book names was explicitly forbidden.
According to artist Albert Uderzo, Goscinny never managed to shake off the embarrassment of the small scandal he caused. The Asterix satellite still orbits the Earth but was not in use for long, because it stopped transmitting quite quickly, according to some sources within two days already.
Mediocre_Value7152 on
In india it was called aryabhatta, aryabhatta was an mathematician-astronomer from the classical age.
Luihuparta on
Aaand my first thought upon reading 東方紅一號 was “that could be a Touhou game’s title”.
DepartureNatural9340 on
Ok tbf to the soviets, since they beat everyone to the punch i naming satellite one actually works really well lmao
suehtaMghfhhfghhg on
Brazil also wasn’t much creative in naming, our first satellite was named “Coleta de Dados 1”, meaning “Data Collection 1”, but at least it stayed 33 years in space
31 Comments
France: “Let’s be different. Again”
and Obelix
Based…. France?
Feels wrong to say
Wait really? They named it after Asterix? Huh. Now thats a fun fact to learn.
Canada had Alouette 1 in ’62
France:
What’s the first living being we should send into space? A man? no. A chimp? been there done that. A dog? boring and they taste funny when you cook them.
We’re sending: a fucking cat! that we will euthanize after actually managing to bring back to earth alive and well.
I think it’s original and quite french. And it gives value to the comic, a genre quite underrated although several generations grew and learnt from Astérix and Obélix
UK wasted the opportunity for Satellity McSatelliteface
Fun fact: literal translation for “Спутник” would be “companion, fellow traveller.” Like satellite is traveling through space along with Earth
It kinda fits, considering the name Asterix is kind a pun on Asterisk (which itself derives from “small star”) and composed of Aster (star) and the reconstructed word *rix (king, which also has an asterisk to mark it as a reconstructed word)
So it can be interpreted as “star king” or “little star king, very fitting for a satellite.
Then you get South Africa in 1999 – **SUNSAT** (Stellenbosch University Satellite)
Masat was the first Hungarian satellite, pronounced “maszat” meaning “smudge” while the name actually came from “Magyar Satellite”.
India 🇮🇳 : We are gonna name it after our first known astronomer “ARYABHATA”
Citizens : Apt enough 🤷🏽♂️👍🏾
Israel had Ofek 1 which translates to “Horizon 1”
Ça c’est ma France
My dumb ass was confused why Poland had Asterix
Well France definitely needs to name their farthest going satellite [Sulphurix](https://youtu.be/O0hDN5OM8Ns?si=9kr0iDW-LnVuv25u)
I prefer our (UK) current communications satellite. Skynet. Nothing bad could ever happen to a system that can be used to send the launch signal for the UKs defence capabilities with a name like Skynet.
Well, of course, or bien-sûr I should say.
Astérix derives from the Latin ‘Astrum’ meaning ‘star’.
Honestly they are all good. Even “Satellite 1” is pretty good when it is the first satellite ever. Soviet Union just went to space and said “first”
The Gauls: “WTF is France? And why are they speaking in Latin?”
“The East is Red #1”
If here referencing fictional characters for space missions, the Artemis II mission control had a plushie of the Sailor Moon character Artemis.
I’m so cooked, when I read the Chinese name the Mao song played in my head
To be fair, “satelite 1” has aura when it’s literally “satellite 1”
Dumb question, but why does China have such “formal” or “indirect” names for a lot of things like this? What was the thought process for naming a satellite “The East is Red” instead of just “Chinese Satellite 1” or something similar.
The story as I remember reading it was that the satellite’s official name was simply A1, but the astronomers had affectionately nicknamed it Asterix. Writer René Goscinny learned about this. When he later met a French minister, he expressed his gratitude for the honour. The minister was very confused and had no idea what Goscinny was talking about. So he did what humourless officials at that time did and decided to hold an investigation about what was going on here. The committee’s conclusion was that astronomy was “a too serious thing to be involved with comic book characters” and the use of further comic book names was explicitly forbidden.
According to artist Albert Uderzo, Goscinny never managed to shake off the embarrassment of the small scandal he caused. The Asterix satellite still orbits the Earth but was not in use for long, because it stopped transmitting quite quickly, according to some sources within two days already.
In india it was called aryabhatta, aryabhatta was an mathematician-astronomer from the classical age.
Aaand my first thought upon reading 東方紅一號 was “that could be a Touhou game’s title”.
Ok tbf to the soviets, since they beat everyone to the punch i naming satellite one actually works really well lmao
Brazil also wasn’t much creative in naming, our first satellite was named “Coleta de Dados 1”, meaning “Data Collection 1”, but at least it stayed 33 years in space