Posts: 1179
From: Canada
Registered: Jul 2001

posted 05-07-2012 09:31 AM               

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I was reading this installment of Don Pettit's "Letters to Earth", I see that he writes "Space Station" without an article. Is this the correct grammatical usage even in referring to the generic nature of the ISS, or is this a neologistic attempt by the author to — yet — propose a single name for this outpost.

Or maybe this is already a current usage around NASA and its partners?

Posts: 42988
From: Houston, TX
Registered: Nov 1999

posted 05-07-2012 09:54 AM               

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Various managers, flight controllers and astronauts have been referring to the International Space Station as 'space station' or just 'station' for some time now, perhaps even the length of the program.

It seems to be more shorthand than purposeful formal usage.

Michael Suffredini, NASA's ISS program manager, tends to use 'station' frequently. From his most recent press conference (April 16): "Just real quickly I want to talk about where we are in space station on orbit..."

Posts: 238
From: Ohio
Registered: Mar 2006

posted 05-07-2012 07:39 PM               

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Journalistically (ha, new word) it is incorrect, unless AP style has changed in the last decade. As for how the program and those in it wish to refer to it, I suppose there is nothing to stop them from doing so in any way they please. Whether it is grammatically correct or not.

Anyway, yes, it is "a space station," or "the space station."