[TeMPOraL]

I'll contribute a picky correction too:

> Musk by naming SpaceX rockets after Banks’s tongue-in-cheek Culture ships (“Just Read The Instructions,” “Of Course I Still Love You”)

Those are not the names of the rockets, but the ocean barges on which the rockets land.

[imdsm]

Just to add to this, they have those names due to their autonomous nature, much like the culture ships. I imagine Musk has the idea of a fleet of autonomous ships moving as required to collect rockets unable to make landfall.

[DonHopkins]

Here's the whole list of culture ship names per novel -- share and enjoy!

https://theculture.fandom.com/wiki/List_of_spacecraft

>Legacy: The autonomous spaceport drone ships Of Course I Still Love You, Just Read the Instructions 1 & 2, operated by SpaceX, were named after General Contact Units mentioned in The Player of Games, as a posthumous homage to Banks by Elon Musk.[11] The construction of a fourth drone ship, named A Shortfall of Gravitas, was announced by Elon Musk via Twitter on February 12, 2018.[12] It is named after the Experiencing A Significant Gravitas Shortfall, a ship mentioned in Look to Windward and Matter as a GSV and GCU respectively.

[w0mbat]

I would say that is a major factual error in the article.

Although the barges are less glamorous than rocket stages, they are reused more times, and so are more permanent a tribute.

[kurtschiller]

Thanks, I'll correct this in the article. Appreciate it!

[arethuza]

I really hope the first ship to land on Mars is "The Ends of Invention".

[m-i-l]

In 2016 Musk did say "the first ship that goes to Mars, my current favourite is Heart of Gold, from the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy ... I like the infinite improbability drive"[0]

[0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qp13ztMhwGU