Names of spacecraft for countries that didn't have/haven't had any

New Cleo Genesis

I thought it might be interesting to brainstorm some potential names for satellites, capsules, orbiters etc. for countries that either never had those when they existed or have not launched any while still existing, plausibility aside.

For an independent German space program (Nazi or otherwise) -- yea, I guess it is a bit cliché, but Walküre does sound pretty sweet as a name of a satellite. Maybe not use that one for manned spacecraft though, since the Valkyries tend to, you know, take people to the afterlife.

Now the idea that actually made me create this thread: if, for whatever reason, there had been or were to be a major Finnish project of launching a satellite into orbit (no, I don't count the Aalto University microsatellites as they had no input from the government), I think Ilmatar would be a very fitting name.
 

Lalli

Me too would imaginate German space craft (imperial, republican or nazi) would has name from German mythology.

Japanese one might deliver too its name from Shinto mythology.
 
Talwar

Talwar

From a not-very-well-baked project I've not posted yet:

British Empire's Imperial Space Commission:

-Redeye & Whitehall: Salyut-class space stations, 1960s
-Harrier: Manned spacecraft (3 crew), 1960s
-Lodestar: Space shuttle type vehicle, 1980s

Republic of Gran Columbia's Fuerza Aeroespacial Nacional:

-Buenavista: MOL-class space station, 1960s
-Condor: Manned spacecraft (2 crew), 1960s
-Arquero: ICBM-derived launch vehicle for the above, 1960s

The Internationale's Popular Space Front:

-Liberte: Almaz-type space station, 1960s

Undoubtedly there's more hardware I'd need to name if and when I return to that project.
 

Father Maryland

The First British Space Plane. Which was unfortunately named via popular Online voting/suggestion. So Britain's first ever space plane was hence named "Flyie McFlyface".
 
JohnBull

JohnBull

Germany: Humboldt (I used it in my Multipolar Space Race timeline)
Netherlands: Huygens (In OTL, we have Cassini-Huygens)
 
Rattenfänger von Memphis

Rattenfänger von Memphis

Donor
Lalli said:
...Japanese one might deliver too its name from Shinto mythology.
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Since the Chinese have used names for their spacecraft from their mythology, perhaps the Japanese would too. I remember reading about the English meanings of World War II Japanese ships' s names which they could use for space too. See Japanese Ship Names
Japanese Ship Names said:
Heavy cruisers were traditionally named after mountains, and light cruisers were given the names of rivers. Carriers usually bore poetic names having to do with flight. Hosho, the world’s first keel-up carrier, built in 1921, means “Soaring Phoenix.” Hiryu and Soryu, of the Pearl Harbor attack, may be translated “Flying Dragon” and “Blue Dragon,” respectively.
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When I was stationed in the U.S. Army in South Korea in the 1970s, I noticed an image on their money which I was told was of a “Turtle Ship” from their history. I think it’s a high probability a Korean spacecraft would be called “Turtle Ship”
A Geobukseon (Korean: 거북선, also known as turtle ship in western descriptions, was a type of large Korean warship that was used intermittently by the Royal Korean Navy during the Joseon dynasty from the early 15th century up until the 19th century. It was used… in the fight against invading Japanese naval ships. The ship's name derives from its protective shell-like covering. One of a number of pre-industrial armoured ships developed in Europe and in East Asia, this design has been described by some as the first armored ship in the world.
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New Cleo Genesis

Talwar said:
British Empire's Imperial Space Commission:
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Names like Bonaventure and Endeavour would probably fly (pun not intended) pretty well with the Brits.

Rattenfänger von Memphis said:
When I was stationed in the U.S. Army in South Korea in the 1970s, I noticed an image on their money which I was told was of a “Turtle Ship” from their history. I think it’s a high probability a Korean spacecraft would be called “Turtle Ship”
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Heh, I remember when I was playing Hearts of Iron II or Victoria: Revolutions (don't remember which) as Korea and named one of my battleships that. Could see it as the name of a spacecraft as well -- Chollima potentially as well, at least for North Korea.
 
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Ijon Tichy

The Irish orbital telescope will be named Newgrange: the mini-shuttle that supplies it will be named Ulysses.

The mil-spec, weaponised version of the Ulysses will be the Morrigan.
 

Dr Dee

UK Space Programme:

Discovery (Mariner probe equivalent)
Endeavour (Venus probes)
Beagle (series of probes to search for life on Mars)
Boreas (Europa Clipper analogue)
Newton (probes to Jovian and Saturnian systems)
Herschel (probe to the outer solar system)
Clarke (series of telecom satellites)
Drake (series of navigation satellites)
Megaroc (series of manned capsules)
Moonraker (first generation space shuttle)
Skylon (second generation space shuttle)
Pendragon (reusable capsule for use on Horizon)
Excalibur (heavy lift rocket)
Horizon (Mir class station)
 
Goats-&-Bolts

Goats-&-Bolts

Don’t know how many are aware of this but Ba’athist Iraq had its own space program for a while:
Iraq began its space efforts around 1988. The program operated under several names, including the declared name of Al Abid… By mid-1989, the Al Abid design consisted of a five-SCUD first stage, a 1.25 meter diameter liquid propellant rocket for the second stage, and a third stage that might have been a modified SCUD with a larger diameter tank… After the December 1989 test launch, the Iraqis decided that the second and third stages of the Al Abid should be tested separately. They planned a test for autumn 1990 that they referred to as Al Kharief, or “Autumn.”

The Al Kharief became the focus of international controversy. United Nations inspectors claimed that this was a new missile, whereas the Iraqis claimed that it was the upper stages of the Al Abid... The Al Kharief test ground to a halt, and the August 1990 Iraqi invasion of Kuwait led to the suspension of all activities. According to General Ra’ad, no final report was ever produced and no drawings of the vehicle were available.
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www.middleeasteye.net

'Investment and ambition': A history of Middle Eastern space exploration

The arrival of the UAE's Amal probe into Mars' orbit comes after a long and mixed legacy for the region's space operations
www.middleeasteye.net www.middleeasteye.net
Iraq's space programme lasted from 1988 until 1990 when it developed a solar-powered satellite, named Al-Ta'ir (Bird). In 1989, it launched a 25-metre-long rocket from a launchpad near Baghdad.

The following year it planned a second launch test named Al Kharief (Autumn), but the August 1990 Iraqi invasion of Kuwait led to the suspension of all activities.
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According to GlobalSecurity.org the Al Abid rocket was also known as Tammuz. And according to Wikipedia Baghdad had ambitions of eventually performing a crewed space launch (no citation though apparently).

So, OTL Iraq had used or intended to use following names:
Al-Ta'ir (satellite) — meaning “bird”
Al-Abid (rocket) — meaning “the Worshiper” (?)
Tammuz (rocket, possibly a byname for Al-Abid) — refers either to a Mesopotamian deity or a month in the Babylonian/Arabic calendar
Al-Kharief (rocket) — meaning “Autumn”

In an ATL where the Gulf War never takes place and Baghdad gets to continue its space program maybe you get more names linked to seasons or the calendar? Shawwal (“Lift”), Rajab (“Respect”/“Awe”) and Rabiʽ al-Awwal (“Beginning of Spring”; the month associated with the birth of Prophet Muhammad) are some calendar-themed names which seem to me as being appropriate for space vehicles.

Of course, there are also a ton of pagan mythological names you could choose from… but that seems to be true for ALL countries discussed thus far.
 
Talwar

Talwar

The Tai-Pan said:
I am intrigued.
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The geo-political set-up was a bit of a work in progress, but postulated we'd avoided something on the scale of WW1 in favor (?) of several smaller conflicts.

The British Empire was still huge, the USA still slumbering in isolation.

For narrative reasons, Gran Colombia had not only stayed united but also pulled in many of the historical Catholic emigrants to the new world and was broadly on par with historical France in power.

A French-led revolutionary alliance of Russia, Spain, and Italy were in a cold war with mildly democratized Germany, A-H, and the Ottomans.

Initial space exploration focused on LEO military and scientific exploitation, culminating with Almaz/MOL platforms. A global conflict with very limited nuclear exchange in the late sixties trashed a lot of existing space infrastructure (ground and in space). The premise of the actual story was that the Brits had since started developing an STS analogue and, in ~1980, were trying to coax the Central Powers, Colombia, and Japan into an ISS-style program.
 
Simon

Simon

For a British government project I would expect the names to come from classical antiquity, something linked to Ancient Greece or Ancient Rome. Individual spacecraft could be named after famous explorers or ships, space observatories and probes after famous astronomers or scientists perhaps.

Edit: Alternatively the rocket names might be different if like the Atlas and Titan they're developed from military weapons. Angon, Ascalon or Rhongomynia are possible names for a British ICBM.
 
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