NASA Names Treadmill After Stephen Colbert

Somehow I knew that NASA would hose Stephen Colbert out of getting the space station node named after him. While it was widely known that the powers that be at NASA held the final word in the naming process, at the same time, they held an online poll which gave voters a chance to have their say.

NASA’s main choices were “Serenity“, “Earthrise“, “Legacy“, and “Venture“, yet chose the eighth place holder, “Tranquility“, instead.

Astronaut Sunita Williams presented the results of the poll, with Colbert paying extra attention to how democratic they are. Instead of having a space station node named after him, Colbert “demanded” the treadmill be named after him.

The treadmill, called Combined Operational Load Bearing External Resistance Treadmill (COLBERT) and will be operational in August.

NASA’s Associate Administrator for Space Operations, Bill Gerstenmaier, said, “We don’t typically name U.S. space station hardware after living people and this is no exception. We have invited Stephen to Florida for the launch of COLBERT and to Houston to try out a version of the treadmill that astronauts train on.”

Maybe they should’ve told him that before he told his fanbase to go on NASA’s website and vote for him?

[Image: MSNBCMedia / Source: SFGate]

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