Wikipedia:WikiProject Spaceflight/Style guide
This is a draft, work in progress guideline to reflect project consensus application of the Manual of Style.
Preamble
- As a rule, articles should conform to the Wikipedia:Manual of Style
- Where possible, they should also conform to the NASA History Office's Style Guide
- And to this style guide.
Dates and times
- Since space is not within any Earth-bound time zone, and to avoid regional bias, the WP:WikiProject Spaceflight community has established a consensus (discussed here) to use UTC.
- Dates should be in day-month-year format (7 July 1983)
- Times should use the 24-hour clock (13:47)
Gender-Specific Language
Per the NASA Style Guide:
In general, all references to the space program should be non-gender-specific (e.g., human, piloted, unpiloted, robotic, as opposed to manned or unmanned). The exception to the rule is when referring to the Manned Spaceflight Center (also known as the Manned Spacecraft Center), the predecessor of Johnson Space Center in Houston, or to any other historical program name or official title that included “manned” (e.g., Associate Administrator for Manned Spaceflight).
This is read as conformance with the Wikipedia:Manual of Style#Gender-neutral language
Italic type
The style guideline says: "Italic type (text like this) should be used for the names of ... named, specific vessels: ... Spacecraft (often fictional)." The following examples are given: the Space Shuttle Challenger, USS Enterprise NCC-1701, Constitution-class starships
For purposes of the style guide, spacecraft are taken as a metaphoric extension of ocean-going ships; this is exemplified by the term spaceship used in fiction, which denotes a reusable interplanetary or interstellar vessel, the only consumable and expendable part of which is the fuel. Such "spaceships" do not yet truly exist, yet some manned spacecraft have been named in this manner, and more can be expected in the future as spaceflight continues to develop.
Real-world named spacecraft have included:
- Project Mercury capsules: Freedom 7, Liberty Bell 7, Friendship 7, Aurora 7, Sigma 7, and Faith 7
- Apollo lunar spacecraft:
| Mission | Command/Service Module | Lunar Module |
|---|---|---|
| Apollo 9 | Gumdrop | Spider |
| Apollo 10 | Charlie Brown | Snoopy |
| Apollo 11 | Columbia | Eagle |
| Apollo 12 | Yankee Clipper | Intrepid |
| Apollo 13 | Odyssey | Aquarius |
| Apollo 14 | Kitty Hawk | Antares |
| Apollo 15 | Endeavour | Falcon |
| Apollo 16 | Casper | Orion |
| Apollo 17 | America | Challenger |
- Space Shuttles: Enterprise, Columbia, Challenger, Discovery, Atlantis, and Endeavour.
- SpaceShip Two: VSS Enterprise, VSS Unity, three more TBD