NASA comes up with a consolation prize:
Colbert received more than 230,000 votes out of 1 million, but NASA reserved the right to be the final arbiter.
While it wasn’t the leading vote-getter, Tranquility was one of the top 10 suggestions submitted by respondents to the online poll, which ended March 20, NASA said in a statement. It was selected in part because of a connection to the 1969 first manned lunar landing.
“Apollo 11 landed on the moon at the Sea of Tranquility 40 years ago this July,” said William Gerstenmaier, NASA’s associate administrator for space operations. “We selected Tranquility because it ties it to the exploration and the moon, and symbolizes the spirit of international cooperation embodied by the space station.”
As a consolation prize to the comedian, Gerstenmaier said NASA is naming “its new space station treadmill the Combined Operational Load Bearing External Resistance Treadmill, or COLBERT.”
I’m sure this has been great publicity for NASA and they love it.
jon
Colbert is going to be pissed off at this Outrage, but his show will feature lots of footage of that treadmill.
Napoleon
What I thought was great was they made the announcement on his show. My local newspaper yesterday in mentioning that the announcement would come on Colbert’s show quoted him from a press release as saying something like "I hope NASA does the right thing in naming the node. Just kidding, actually I hope they name it after me."
El Cid
For those who haven’t seen it, Stephen Colbert plays the President in the animated "Monsters Vs Aliens," and it’s even funnier than you’d imagine. It’s actually a really, really funny movie.
canuckistani
There was speculation that NASA would name a new personal waste disposal unit after Colbert. A treadmill is just about as funny.
Matt
Wait a second, I thought "Serenity" was the leading vote-getter? What was the point of the poll if they were just going to pick what they wanted anyway? Well, they got their publicity, I suppose.
Rook
That’s great! No doubt Colbert will take this and run. I can see a whole slew of jokes centered around "Don’t Tread On Me" etc., etc., etc.
PaulW
I voted for Serenity.
Damn Purplebellies stole the election! RIOT!
Sasha
You know the only reason Serenity was the second top vote-getter is because there are a bunch of FIREFLY fans out there, right?
kid bitzer
that’s a damned nice save on nasa’s part with that treadmill joke.
very classy, very funny; it’s deflating but not quite insulting, in a way that will let him feign outrage, but doesn’t really hurt.
well-played all around.
Peter J
Poll results:
Colbert 230,539
Serenity 190,196
Myyearbook 147,637
Gaia 114,427
Legacy 35,339
Xenu 29,302
Earthrise 22,932
Venture 21,232
Socialvibe 9,080
Buddy 6,342
Ubuntu 4,556
Tranquility 4,493
Synergy 1,976
Vision 1,042
amorphous
Now that is some grade-A Republican-quality acronym making-up.
joes527
Damn.
I was really hoping for the suggestion made by another poster here.
Name it Colbert, but be very clear that it is pronounced kol-burt (stress on second syllable)
Cyrus
@Matt:
Be fair now, we shouldn’t blame them for wanting to go with a serious name. Look at the results Peter J posted. If a different set of fanboys had managed to beat Colbert and get the thing named "Myyearbook" or "Xenu," we wouldn’t be complaining at all about "Tranquility."
Evinfuilt
Even though I wanted Colbert to win, I knew that the other node names had a theme, and Serenity not only was geeky but fit the theme… Sad it didn’t win, silly actually. Yes, Tranquility fit the theme, but sheeesh.
Joey Maloney
@Peter J:
You forgot –
Fart Monkey 7
The Moar You Know
THIS IS BULLSHIT WE THE PEOPLE HAVE BEEN ROBBED
sparky
@The Moar You Know: ACORN!
Cris
I’m not even a big Firefly geek, and I think Serenity totally deserved to win. It’s not even that different from Tranquility — the Sea of Serenity is the Sea of Tranquility’s next-door neighbor!
tavella
Yeah, that sort of weirded me out. Ignoring write-ins is reasonable, but having a contest and then ignoring your _own official suggestions_ to pick something that came in 12th is strange.
ThresherK
@canuckistani
I hear that fight’s between Colbert and Richard Benjamin.
The Cat Who Would Be Tunch
NASA’s decision to hold a vote on naming the ISS node and subsequent tyrannical action of ignoring the will of the people by choosing its own name is proof of the incoming Obama Liberal Fascism. He has conquered the Final Frontier. Tea baggers, we must unite and make our last stand on Terra!
Polish the Guillotines
@ThresherK: Holy moley. Uber-obscure Quark reference for the win.
Tom Hilton
Fuck Colbert; Serenity was robbed.
MNPundit
Fuck Serenity, Christ that was a boring show and movie.
Anyhow, what NASA should have done for maximum publicity was say they would name the module "Colbert" but only IF they could pronounce it with the hard "T" sound.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
clay
Colbert loves it too, because at heart, he is a true geek. He once interviewed an astronaut who was in orbit at the time. Colbert was as giddy as a little boy on Christmas, and you could tell it was genuine.