Name NASA’s Node 3 for the ISS
Apparently, most people wrote in with the name "Colbert," and generated more than 40,000 votes than NASA’s suggested "Serenity." It’s not news, it’s CNN:
Fans of "The Colbert Report" made "Colbert" the No. 1 submission in a NASA contest to name a new wing of the international space station.
Still, NASA reserves the right to name the wing of the space station and says it will not make a final decision on the matter until next month.
"Colbert" pulled in 230,539 of the more than 1.1 million submissions in the contest, according to NASA spokesman John Yembrick. Video Watch how Colbert urged his viewers to vote »
NASA’s suggestion for the wing, "Serenity," came in second, with slightly more than 190,000 votes, he said.
Yembrick said NASA had not yet decided what to name Node 3 — a connecting module and its cupola — that will be installed on the space station.
He said NASA would likely put "Colbert" a "little higher" in the space agency’s consideration because of the high number of submissions but emphasized that the decision would likely not be made until next month.
The contest rules say NASA reserves the right to "ultimately select a name in accordance with the best interests of the agency. … Such name may not necessarily be one which is on the list of voted-on candidate names."
Other rooms on the space station are named Unity, Harmony and Destiny.
More from the Houston Chronicle:
Didn’t NASA realize that the Colbert Nation pounces on any opportunity to vote for the star of Comedy Central’s The Colbert Report when a naming contest is in the works?
The name “Colbert” won the agency’s online contest to name a new room on the International Space Station. It’s not the first victory for Stephen Colbert, although it’s not yet known whether NASA will honor the write-in campaign.
Other namesakes (some were bestowed without a vote) include:
• Steagle Colbeagle the Eagle: Saginaw Spirit minor-league hockey team mascot in Michigan.
• Stephen Jr.: Bald eagle born at the San Francisco Zoo.
• Stelephant Colbert: Elephant seal that roams near Santa Cruz, Calif.
• Stephanie Colburtle: Leatherback in the Great Turtle Race from Costa Rica to the Galapagos Islands.
• Aptostichus Stephencolberti: Species of trapdoor spider.
• Bridge over Danube: Colbert earned a you-win document in 2006 from Hungarian officials who then said the bridge could only be named after a deceased person. It is now called the Megyeri Bridge.
• Air Colbert: The Virgin America plane was christened a few weeks before Colbert and owner Richard Branson doused each other with water during an August 2007 meeting on The Colbert Report.
• The Colbert Report fans don’t always win. In a naming contest earlier this month for a park in St. Charles, Mo., Colbert Park came in second. The winner was Vogt Brothers Park, in honor of the land’s former owners.
This is not an April Fool’s Day prank…
