The Spacecraft Icarus

I have heard it asked, in all seriousness: "Icarus is the name of the ill–fated space ship in which popular 1968 science fiction film?"

The fact is that the spacecraft doesn't have a name in the film. But, says Wikipedia:

"for the 40th anniversary release of the Blu-ray edition of the film, in the short–film created for the release called A Public Service Announcement from ANSA, the ship is called "Liberty 1". The ship had originally been called "Immigrant One" in an early draft of the script, and then called "Air Force One" in a test set of Topps Collectible cards, and even dubbed "Icarus" by a fan which caught on on some fansites."

One such fan site is GoingFaster.com (the web domain of one Christopher T. Shields), which tells how "One fan in particular, Larry Evans, decided that the mysterious spacecraft needed a proper name, since none was ever given in any of the movies. It was Larry who first gave the ANSA spacecraft the name of 'Icarus', after the Greek myth, and it is that name which has struck [sic] with fans."

© Haydn Thompson 2017