Which of these space shuttles was named after a naval vessel commanded by British explorer Captain Cook?

Space Shuttle Endeavour (Orbiter Vehicle Designation: OV-105) was named after the first ship commanded by 18th century British explorer James Cook. On its maiden voyage in 1788, Cook sailed into the South Pacific and around Tahiti to observe the passage of the planet Venus between the Earth and the Sun. During another leg of the journey, Cook reached New Zealand, surveyed Australia and navigated the Great Barrier Reef.

Endeavour was the fifth and final operational Shuttle that was built. It embarked on its first mission in May 1992 and its 25th and final mission in May 2011. This was expected to be the final mission of the entire Space Shuttle program, but with authorization, there was one more mission and Atlantis became the last shuttle to fly on July 21, 2011.

The United States Congress approved the construction of Endeavour in 1987 to replace Challenger, which was destroyed in 1986. Structural spares built during the construction of Discovery and Atlantis were used in its assembly. NASA chose, on cost grounds, to build Endeavour from spares.

The Space Shuttle Discovery was named after two ships – one in which Henry Hudson in 1610-11 attempted to search for a northwest passage between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans and instead discovered Hudson Bay and another in which Capt. Cook explored the Hawai’ian Islands and explored southern Alaska and western Canada. The shuttles, Atlantis, Challenger and Columbia, were also named after naval vessels.