# NATO code names **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 3, 2024, 8:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nato-code-names/999772 "2024-04-03T08:30:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Showing post:** 14
**Author:** ![Machine\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2024, 11:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nato-code-names/999772/14 "2024-04-04T11:48:05Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > I believe that author is wrong. See also > > > [xkcd: Citogenesis](https://xkcd.com/978/) The XKCD comic is worth a laugh, but if you want to see citogenesis happen in real time, check out my thread on the Vigor space probe from eight years ago: > [@The Great Kersten Blunder: was it real?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-kersten-blunder-was-it-real/753275): > > A Google search for “the great Kersten Blunder” turns up many results, [such as this one.](http://measurementmishaps.blogspot.com/2014/08/the-great-kersten-blunder.html) The claim is that a programmer named Kersten screwed up a measurement conversion factor, causing the $2B “Vigor space probe” to miss Venus and become lost in space. The problem is that I can’t find any mention of a “Vigor space probe” that identifies who launched it or what its mission was. So what’s the deal? Was there actually a “space probe” named Vigor, targeted at the planet Venus, that was lost due… Within six months, that thread was being cited as evidence that the very thing I was asking about was in fact an urban legend. And now that I actually finished reviewing that thread, I see you posted the same XKCD comic in there at the time. 😆 --- _[View the full topic](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nato-code-names/999772)._