From the www.nasa.gov site, “Help NASA Name Node 3!”:
Final Voting Results (proposed names):
9% people answered Earthrise.
13% people answered Legacy.
70% people answered Serenity.
8% people answered Venture.
Top 10 (write in) Suggestions
COLBERT
MYYEARBOOK
GAIA
XENU
SOCIALVIBE
BUDDY
UBUNTU
TRANQUILITY
SYNERGY
VISION
I see what you did there.
I didn’t know that, and I suspect Mr. Neville didn’t, either. All we knew was that Xenu had something to do with Scientology.
I’m not terribly sure it would have been a good way of making fun of Scientology. There are lots of people who know that Xenu has something to do with Scientology but not that it’s something (someone?) Scientologists would never propose as a name.
Xenu is like Satan in Scientology. And you’re not supposed to know about him until reach a certain level, anyways.
But nowadays, what with the internet, and especially after the South Park episode, it’s getting pretty hard to keep it a secret.
From the NASA Site:
“The name should reflect the spirit of exploration and cooperation embodied by the space station, and follow in the tradition set by Node 1- Unity- and Node 2- Harmony.”
So Serenity is will be. Interesting thing will be if they throw Stephen a bone or not…
I don’t think they’ll have to throw him a bone. Colbert likes space, and is serious behind the comedy. He’s also brilliant.
By doing this, he gave his fans something to do, satirized the idiocy of naming something important by internet poll, and prevented the embarrassment of having a Scientology themed name win. I’m betting he will have a NASA guy on the show to bless Serenity as a name and give them more publicity. He already has interviewed an astronaut in orbit. Everyone gets publicity, win-win.
Wait, “MYYEARBOOK”? Whiskey tango foxtrot?
Apparently, we’re better at blocking spammers than NASA is. 
Completely agreed.
That would constitute a small bone in my book, but I’ll bet they go farther than that. Like it’s the Serenity Module with the Colbert Cabinet or something like that. Of course Colbert will consistently refer to the entire ISS as the “Housing for the Colbert Cabinet”, but at this point, I’m betting NASA would just be happy to have someone mention the dang thing in any sort of positive light.
Again, not to get too serious, but if NASA comes out of this with anything less than an upside, their entire management and communications staff should be fired. This is a no-bullshit golden opportunity for them, I hope they break tradition and actually take advantage of it.
Hm. Too bad I didn’t hear about this until just now, or I would have campaigned for “Boom Boom”, if only for the chuckle I’d get from thinking about all the astronauts having to constantly say, “I’m heading over to the Boom Boom Room.”
Once a day, the astronauts on the space station will have to jump on Colbert. He didn’t get the node. The node will be named Tranquility. Stephen will have his name on a treadmill in the node.
Yeah…it’s lame. They snuck out of this one.
If NASA rejects the name the people have chosen, it is a slap in the face of democracy. They may as well just name it Terrorism.
I feel slighted, as I took the time to vote in this contest. For the rest of my days I swear I will never support NASA in any endeavor (heh) and will root against their space launches being successful. Yeah, I’m bitter like that.
Really? I had no clue that if NASA went ahead and chose a name they thought suitable, THE TERRORISTS WOULD WIN.
While I’m at it, please name my child. I wouldn’t want the terrorists to win there too.
I’ll have to check out the episode when I get home. Props to Colbert for the amount of attention he drew for this thing. That’s some real geekwork.