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After the test flight of the Falcon Heavy, we've gotten a flood of questions related to its wonderfully quirky payload. Before the launch, this payload was known as 'the Roadster', and we created a tag. On launch day, it was officially named Starman by SpaceX. It has generated so much interest among the general public, we have now gotten a slew of questions about Starman, and some of those don't refer to it being a Roadster at all. In fact, in the case of some questions, I think the asker doesn't know it's a Roadster. They just know it's a car.

The procedure when there are two common terms for the same thing is to create two tags, and make one a synonym of the other, so that a search for either will include questions tagged with all the synonyms. But one tag rules them all - the others are added as part of it, more or less.

So, do we create the Starman tag and make it the one true tag, or make it a sub-term of Roadster?

Or do we even change the Roadster tag to Starman?

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    $\begingroup$ Sorry if I add any confusion, but I renamed the roadster tag to tesla-roadster. I figured that way it will come up when people start typing "tesla". There were already two roadster questions that had a "tesla" tag instead of a "roadster" tag. I have now replaced the tag on those with the new "tesla-roadster" tag. $\endgroup$
    – called2voyage Mod
    Commented Feb 7, 2018 at 20:21
  • $\begingroup$ @called2voyage yes, that tesla tag is an issue. It has nothing to do with space. Can it be killed? I don't remember. $\endgroup$
    – kim holder
    Commented Feb 7, 2018 at 20:24
  • $\begingroup$ It will die automatically without any questions on it. $\endgroup$
    – called2voyage Mod
    Commented Feb 7, 2018 at 20:24

2 Answers 2

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Starman is in the Roadster, so therefore the correct tag should be Roadster. I think Starman should be a synonym of Roadster.

According to Space-Track, the name is "TESLA ROADSTER/FALCON 9H", so it would seem Roadster should be the master tag.

Also, Horizons calls it "Tesla Roadster (AKA: Starman, 2018-017A)", or when choosing it as an option "SpaceX Roadster (spacecraft) (Tesla)".

Bottom line, Roadster or Tesla Roadster are the appropriate names. Starman is better picked up in popular culture, but isn't really required.

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  • $\begingroup$ Oh, Starman is just the suit? I regarded it as the collective term for the whole thing. $\endgroup$
    – kim holder
    Commented Feb 7, 2018 at 18:08
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    $\begingroup$ I always thought Starman was the suit, but I could be wrong... $\endgroup$
    – PearsonArtPhoto Mod
    Commented Feb 7, 2018 at 18:11
  • $\begingroup$ @kimholder I can't find a clear statement from Musk or SpaceX on the matter, but most news articles are referring to the suit as Starman. $\endgroup$
    – called2voyage Mod
    Commented Feb 7, 2018 at 18:15
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    $\begingroup$ Starman is clearly the mannequin inside the suit, people. $\endgroup$
    – Russell Borogove
    Commented Feb 7, 2018 at 19:46
  • $\begingroup$ @RussellBorogove Well, yes, of course. $\endgroup$
    – called2voyage Mod
    Commented Feb 7, 2018 at 20:27
  • $\begingroup$ Someone has created the starman tag. You might want to synonym that too $\endgroup$
    – Machavity
    Commented Feb 15, 2018 at 13:41
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I concur with @PearsonArtPhoto's answer:

Jonathan McDowell has tweeted the Satellite Catalog. I noticed this in a retweet by the Air Force Space Command itself!

enter image description here

Therefore it's probably OK, this one time, to show it here.

McDowell's tweeted image, cropped:

Satellite Catalog Screen Shot from a tweet cropped

Also, JPL's Horizons lists it as Roadster:

enter image description here

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