William Atkins
Saturday, 11 April 2009 19:57
Science -
Space
Page 2 of 3
Stephen Colbert asked his viewers on
"The Colbert Report" to write in the name “Colbert” and they did.
ITwire initially reported this event on Tuesday, March 26, 2009 with the article “
NASA Nation versus Colbert Nation.”
Bill Gerstenmaier, associate administrator for Space Operations at NASA Headquarters (Washington, D.C.) stated,
“The node naming poll was organic and took on a life of its own. We received more than a million entries, in large part because social media Web sites and television programs, such as 'The Colbert Report,' took an interest. This spread overall awareness of the International Space Station." [NASA]
The NASA article went on to say that the producers of
The Colbert Report offered to host the name selection announcement after Stephen Colbert took an interest in the naming process.
He stated,
"I certainly hope NASA does the right thing. Just kidding, I hope they name it after me."
NASA talks about the new
module,
“Node 3 is a pressurized module that will provide room for many of the space station's life support systems."
It would seem likely to see NASA name the Node 3 “Colbert” since one of its astronauts is appearing on The Colbert Report to make the announcement.
Page three contains comments about the naming of the ISS Node 3.
