Students Angered At NASA Decision

Students at Harvard were disappointed with NASA’s announcement that Node 3 of the International Space Station will be called Tranquility, even after the name “Colbert” received the most votes during the online contest to name the component.

“Colbert” won because Stephen Colbert of The Colbert Report encouraged his viewers to write his name in for the contest.

Nearly 1.2 million votes were made in this online contest, over 230,000 of which voted for the name “Colbert.”

The name Serenity came in second place with 190,000 votes.

Several students said they thought it was unjustified that NASA did not choose the first-placed moniker.

“This is absolutely outrageous, its totally undemocratic,” said Dylan R. Matthews ’12, an avid Colbert Report viewer.

“I am morally outraged,” added Brendan C. Quinn ’12.

But they were somewhat appeased when they learned of NASA’s reason for dubbing the component Tranquility.

NASA chose to name Node 3 Tranquility because of the 40th anniversary of Apollo 11, which landed in the area of the moon known as the Sea of Tranquility, according to a NASA press release from Tuesday.

Although the component was not named “Colbert,” NASA will call its new space treadmill COLBERT (Combined Operational Load Bearing External Resistance Treadmill).

The announcement was made Tuesday night on The Colbert Report by NASA Astronaut ‘Sunita Williams, the first person to run the Boston Marathon in space.

But the decision to name a treadmill after Colbert was perplexing to many students.

“It seems like a slap in the face, it’s like naming a dixie cup after him,” said Ryan P. Halprin ’12.

Others said that they thought the decision reflected NASA’s opinion of Colbert’s appearance.

“He is dashingly handsome—he doesn’t need a treadmill,” said Jennifer Lim ’12.

The COLBERT Treadmill is expected to be launched to the ISS in August and the Tranquility node is scheduled to be launched to the station in Feb 2010, according to the NASA press release.