14 DAY TRIAL // The American space agency kept its choice for the new name of the Node 3 module a secret until yesterday evening, when astronaut Sunita Williams, a mission specialist for STS-117 and also a former Expedition 15 flight engineer, announced on the fake-conservative show “The Colbert Report” that the new module would be named “Tranquility.” The name honors the first human landing on the Moon, as it's the place where Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin touched down for the first time in human history.
During the announcement, comedian Stephen Colbert watched Williams in disbelief. He was the rightful winner of NASA's “Help Name Node 3” competition, and got the most votes, out of more than a million ballots. “Colbert” won over more than 230,000 people, nearly 40,000 more than the runner-up name, “Serenity.” However, the comedian got his name on something aboard the new module, but not on a space toilet, as rumors had it, but on a new, state-of-the-art treadmill.
“The public did a fantastic job and surprised us with the quality and volume of the suggestions. 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,” NASA Space Operations Associate Administrator Bill Gerstenmaier explained.
“We don't typically name U.S. space station hardware after living people and this is no exception. 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 official said.
The new training device will fly to space aboard the Endeavor space shuttle, during the STS-130 mission, scheduled to take off somewhere in February 2010. The Tranquility module will be the fifth American-built one aboard the International Space Station, joining the previously installed Destiny laboratory, Quest airlock, Unity node, and Harmony node. The new addition will have six windows on its sides, as well as one in the “ceiling,” which will offer astronauts working within a 360-degree view of the space station.