[the_cramer]

Can anyone elaborate why it is important to put the name of the mission in the designation of the object? There are more important attributes that which could be encoded in the name, are there not?

[_Microft]

I'd expect "GAIA" to be something like a namespace for the mission that makes it easier to pick unique names.

Maybe something interesting is in these links:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astronomical_naming_convention...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_catalogue

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaia_catalogues

[tantalor]

Tell that to the "Galilean moons"

[wantoncl]

And Charles Messier.

[addaon]

The problem with replacing the Messier catalog naming is just how neat and clean the single namespace ends up. There have been alternate proposals, but they all ended up messier.