Following up this February story, NASA has announced the name of the newest International Space Station (ISS) module, which previously had been known as Node 3. Thousands of suggestions and more than a million on-line votes resulted in the name “Tranquility”, after the landing site of the Apollo 11 mission (the first time people walked on the Moon).
“The public did a fantastic job and surprised us with the quality and volume of the suggestions,” said NASA Associate Administrator for Space Operations Bill Gerstenmaier. “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.”
“Tranquility” (and sanity) triumphed over a rush by television comedy-news host Stephen Colbert. NASA astronaut Suni Williams publicly announced the name Tuesday on Comedy Central’s The Colbert Report. The show’s producers offered to host the name selection announcement after comedian Stephen Colbert took an interest in the poll and urged his viewers to suggest the name “Colbert,” which received the most entries.
“We don’t typically name US space station hardware after living people, and this is no exception,” Gerstenmaier joked. “However, NASA is naming its new space station treadmill the ‘Combined Operational Load Bearing External Resistance Treadmill,’ or COLBERT. 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.”
The treadmill is targeted to launch to the station in August; next year it will be installed in Tranquility. A newly-created patch will depict the acronym and an illustration of the treadmill.
Tranquility is currently scheduled to arrive in Florida in May, and to launch aboard the space shuttle Endeavour‘s STS-130 mission in May 2010.
Williams was an especially appropriate vehicle for the announcement. While serving aboard the ISS two years ago, she “participated” in the Boston Marathon by running on a station treadmill similar to COLBERT.