Just for the record - I don't care for either of the ship names and the Pluto probe, which will eventually be only the fifth craft to ever leave our Sol system, is being treated like a local town time capsule.

December 20, 2005

Pluto Mission to Carry Piece of SpaceShipOne

The January liftoff of the New Horizons spacecraft bound for Pluto is toting a number of items, including a U.S. flag, as well as a compact disc containing more than 430,000 names.

But at a NASA New Horizons press briefing held December 19, mission officials played it coy in responding to a reporter’s question to be a bit more specific on other objects that might be onboard. That information is to come after departure of the spacecraft.

One of those mystery items to be hauled to Pluto is a piece of SpaceShipOne, the pioneering suborbital rocket plane that made repeat trips to the edge of space in 2004. The milestone-making piloted vehicle is now part of the Smithsonian’s Air and Space Museum collection on public display in Washington, D.C.

Word about the piece of space plane making the voyage to Pluto came last month via SpaceShipOne’s chief designer, Burt Rutan of Scaled Composites in Mojave, California.

“New Horizons…has a piece of carbon fiber from SpaceShipOne and it’s going to Pluto…which is kinda cool,” Rutan told reporters November 12 prior to a gala honoring the aerospace pioneer held at Wings Over the Rockies Air and Space Museum in Denver, Colorado.

-- Leonard David

http://www.space.com/astronotes/astronotes.html