Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

NASA Names Space Station Treadmill After Colbert

Posted by Soulskill on from the running-man dept.

willith writes "The SF Chronicle reports on the results of the International Space Station Node 3 naming contest (which we previously discussed). Comedian and fake-pundit Stephen Colbert conducted a bombastic write-in campaign and repeatedly urged his show's fan base (the 'Colbert Nation') to stuff the ballot box with his name, which resulted in 'Colbert' coming in first in the write-in contest with almost a quarter-million votes. Although the Node 3 component will not be named 'Colbert' — NASA has instead chosen to call it 'Tranquility' — one of the Node 3 components will bear the honor: the second ISS treadmill, which will be installed in Node 3, will be named the Combined Operational Load Bearing External Resistance Treadmill. The formal announcement was made on the air yesterday at 22:30 EDT on the Colbert Report by astronaut Sunita Williams."

4 of 383 comments (clear)

  1. Tranquility? by Thelasko · · Score: 5, Informative

    I thought serenity was the runner up?

    --
    One of our competitors trademarked the term "hypothesis". From now on, we will call them "boneheaded ideas".
  2. Re:Stupid by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

    But they never claimed that they would name the node after the #1 choice - they said they'd do a poll, and then decide themselves. Not totally ignoring the poll, obviously, but also not feeling bound by it no matter what, either.

    And as I always say: all is fair if you predeclare. They didn't lie about it, so what's the problem?

    Let me guess: you voted for "Colbert" (or possibly "Serenity" - or possibly both, multiple times), and you either didn't read the rules beforehand or somehow convinced yourself that they would go with the popular choice no matter what after all. But that's not NASA's problem, it's your problem.

    What NASA did was entirely fair.

  3. Re:Which made it first place by Shakrai · · Score: 5, Informative

    Otherwise they're just making themselves liars.

    How are they making themselves liars when the page had a big huge disclaimer on it that said they weren't bound by the results?

    --
    I want peace on earth and goodwill toward man.
    We are the United States Government! We don't do that sort of thing.
  4. explanation here by gEvil+(beta) · · Score: 5, Informative

    On the contest page, NASA has an explanation of why they chose the name 'Tranquility', as well as a little write-up of the COLBERT thing.

    --
    This guy's the limit!