NASA didn’t end up naming its space node after Comedy Central star Stephen Colbert, but on The Colbert Report NASA announced it would name a treadmill in the space station “COLBERT.”
It was the ultimate tease for comedian Stephen Colbert and his fans: NASA announced it would appear on The Colbert Report to name the winner of its contest to name the International Space Station module. As previously reported, an online contest to name the module was overtaken by Colbert when he instructed his thousands of fans to vote it after his surname.
He clobbered the competition: the “Colbert” suggestion accumulated 230,539 votes, beating the next runner-up Serenity by 40,000 votes.
But on Tuesday night, NASA astronauts Sunita L. Williams appeared on The Colbert Report to announce a shocker: NASA would name the module Tranquility. Why? Bill Gerstenmaier, associate administrator for Space Operations, explains in a press release: “Apollo 11 landed on the moon at the Sea of Tranquility 40 years ago this July. We selected ‘Tranquility’ because it ties it to exploration and the moon, and symbolizes the spirit of international cooperation embodied by the space station.”
Despite the boos and hisses pouring out from the audience, the Colbert nation was soon appeased. Williams told Colbert that his name would grace a very important piece of equipment: a treadmill that will launch towards the space station in August.
The exercise machine is named ‘Combined Operational Load Bearing External Resistance Treadmill,’ or COLBERT. The treadmill “will be installed in Tranquility after the node arrives at the station next year. A newly-created patch will depict the acronym and an illustration of the treadmill.” (see picture above)
NASA says Tranquility is scheduled to arrive at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida in May.
Williams joked that astronauts aboard Tranquility will use Colbert’s name frequently. “When someone needs to exercise on the treadmill, they’ll call down to base ‘I’m getting on COLBERT right now’.”
