How Come UFO's aren't simply called spaceships!?

I've always wondered, why aren't UFOs just called SPACESHIPS? Or even starships?

Captain Kirk: "Scotty, beam me back up into our UFO!"
Captain Picard: "Borg UFO sighted!"
"Romulan UFOs sighted!"
"Cardassian UFO sighted!"

Data: "A Klingon UFO has put its weapons online!"

Captain Sisco:"A Cardassian UFO has entered the wormhole!"

Janeway:"Aim for the guns on their UFO!"
"Aim for the laserguns on their UFO!"
"Aim for the shooting guns on their UFO!"
"Aim for the firing guns on their UFO!"

Starbuck: "There's 12 Cylon UFOs attacking the Battlestar Galactica!"

Darth Vader: "Ready my UFO, I'm going out to hunt the Rebels!"
Admiral Tarkan: "Rebel UFO's are attacking the Deathstar!"

Princess Lea: "Imperial UFO's have been detected entering the system!"
Princess Lea to Han Solo:"That's your UFO? Your braver than I thought!"

Ben Kenobi: "We're looking for a UFO to fly us to Alderaan."

Han Solo: "She's the fastest UFO in the galaxy!"

Luke Skywalker: "My UFO has been damaged!"

Lando to Han Solo: "I remember when I used to own this UFO."
Lando: "Boba Fett is taking Han to his UFO!"

Admiral Ackbar:"All Rebels concentrate fire on that Imperial UFO!"

Spacecowboy:"I'm in my UFO on a one way ride!"
(From the movie "Battle Beyond the Stars" for you younguns! LOL!)

Starman: "I came down in my UFO"
(from movie "Starman" for you younguns! LOL!)

Astronaught:"Hal, please open the door to the UFO!"

Flash Gordon:"Ming is escaping in his UFO!"

Why not change the title "Starship Troopers" to "UFO Troopers" ?

[edit on 20-3-2005 by OpenSecret2012]

(edit to remove caps from title)

[edit on 20-3-2005 by pantha]

The word spaceship is far too descriptive for an anomaly for which there has been no official statements as to what they might be. The term UFO describes any object seen in the atmosphere or beyond that defies conventional explanation without misidentifying it.

More to the point, IMO, is that we already do know what UFOs are, that being that some (not all) are spaceships created by extraterrestrial beings, but our governments refuse to acknowledge it as such publicly.

WEll ufo stands for Unidentified Flying Object, Meaning if its identified it's no longer a Ufo. whether it be a weather baloon, clouds or falling star.


also they used the term "unidentified craft detected captain" a couple of times on the show

though i have to admint the UFO Enterprise has a nice ring to it.

when something is identified you are able to give it a name, so by all means identify the UFO's you speak of and we can then name them. might i suggest....... inter-dimensional hyper craft

I always thought that associating "UFO's" with "Aliens" is kind of stupid, and insults the intelligece of many. As was just mentioned, UFO stands for Unidentified Flying Object, which by definition, could be a bug, that is not indigent to the area, it could be a kite that had blown away from a kid, it could be anything that is airborn, that whoever sees it from the ground doesn't recognize it, either because they have never seen one like it before, maybe it's just too far away. Anyway that term should be reserved for Hollywood.

And the term "alien" is often used in describing an immigrant from another country. So when you think about it, the whole concept of thinking of extra-terresatrials coming here in flying saucers (I can throw a plate across the room and call it a flying saucer!) to abduct us, and BTW, I don't know why they always look supposedly like those in the long ago movie, "Close Encounters of the Third Kind".

In the whole entire universe, it would be very far fetched to believe that the planet earth is the only planet with intelligent (and I use the word "intelligent" loosely) life.

But come on people, aliens looking like those from the movies coming in "UFO's to abduct people - please! However, visitors from outside of our galaxy in their aircrafts, would be quite plausable.

Well, it's because no readily accepts that UFO's are spaceships in this day and age.

(posted by CyberKat)
(...) I don't know why they always look supposedly like those in the long ago movie, "Close Encounters of the Third Kind".

Not always. Sometimes they look like this:




You can read about this alien that has invaded Florida here:

www.flmnh.ufl.edu... alkingCatfish.html

...and it is an "alien species" as described in...

Executive Order 13112 Invasive Species

THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
For Immediate Release February 3, 1999

EXECUTIVE ORDER 13112 - INVASIVE SPECIES

By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, including the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969, as amended (42 U.S.C. 4321 et seq.), Nonindigenous Aquatic Nuisance Prevention and Control Act of 1990, as amended (16 U.S.C. 4701 et seq.), Lacey Act, as amended (18 U.S.C. 42), Federal Plant Pest Act (7 U.S.C. 150aa et seq.), Federal Noxious Weed Act of 1974, as amended (7 U.S.C. 2801 et seq.), Endangered Species Act of 1973, as amended (16 U.S.C. 1531 et seq.), and other pertinent statutes, to prevent the introduction of invasive species and provide for their control and to minimize the economic, ecological, and human health impacts that invasive species cause, it is ordered as follows: Section 1. Definitions. (a) "Alien species" means, with respect to a particular ecosystem, any species, including its seeds, eggs, spores, or other biological material capable of propagating that species, that is not native to that ecosystem. (b) "Control" means, as appropriate, eradicating, suppressing, reducing, or managing invasive species populations, preventing spread of invasive species from areas where they are present, and taking steps such as restoration of native species and habitats to reduce the effects of invasive species and to prevent further invasions. (c) "Ecosystem" means the complex of a community of organisms and its environment. (d) "Federal agency" means an executive department or agency, but does not include independent establishments as defined by 5 U.S.C. 104. (e) "Introduction" means the intentional or unintentional escape, release, dissemination, or placement of a species into an ecosystem as a result of human activity. (f) "Invasive species" means an alien species whose introduction does or is likely to cause economic or environmental harm or harm to human health. (g) "Native species" means, with respect to a particular ecosystem, a species that, other than as a result of an introduction, historically occurred or currently occurs in that ecosystem. (h) "Species" means a group of organisms all of which have a high degree of physical and genetic similarity, generally interbreed only among themselves, and show persistent differences from members of allied groups of organisms. (...)

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