So, you know how when NASA wanted to name their their new International Space Station node, they put up a poll on their official website asking the public to help them choose a name? I wrote about it last month and indicated that the top vote out of the available choices was going to the Firefly-inspired "Serenity," but it was being overthrown by write-in votes for "Colbert," no doubt because the political comedian demanded his Colbert Nation to write-in his name on his TV show. Apparently there are more of them than there are browncoats.
It's no surprise that "Colbert" ended up as the winner of the poll, and so NASA sent astronaut Sunita Williams to The Colbert Report last night to announce the Node's new name... which is NOT Colbert. Huh?
"We don't typically name U.S. space station hardware after living people and this is no exception," joked associate administrator for Space Operations, Bill Gerstenmaier.
YES! So that means the name goes to the second place winner, right? Serenity? The one with over 190K votes? Nope. Not that, either. The name of the new Node will, in fact, be Tranquility, which was ranked 8th out of the write-in suggestions. WTF?
"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," said Gerstenmaier.
LAME.
I know NASA retained veto rights on the naming, to prevent names like "Xenu" (4th ranked suggestion) or "Space Molester" (my suggestion) from winning, but "Serenity" was one of the four names they chose themselves! And it had the second most votes! It would have won if Colbert didn't get on TV asking his fans to write his name in. If they're going to choose some other name instead, why bother getting the public to vote if they're just going to name it based on nostalgia? A sucky choice for both Colbert Report and Firefly fans.
Stephen Colbert received a consolation prize, however, when NASA decided to name a treadmill that will be put into Tranquility's fitness room the Combined Operational Load Bearing External Resistance Treadmill, aka The COLBERT. Good to know they're still into those acronyms.
Here's a clip from last night's Report, featuring Sunita Williams.
