April 13th, 2009
Will ISS Node 3 be named for Colbert?!
Astronaut Suni Williams will announce the name of International Space Station module Node 3 tomorrow on The Colbert ReportThat’s because Stephen Colbert added the space station to the long list of things he wants named after himself.
If he pulls off a renaming of Node 3, that would be the ultimate feather in his cap, besting an elephant seal and a minor league hockey team mascot.
NASA held a contest to ask the public to pick a name for Node 3 and Colbert used his substantial platform to direct a nation of irony-heads to the NASA polling site. Boasted a NASA administrator in the press release:
“We received more than a million entries, in large part because social media Web sites and television programs, such as ‘The Colbert Report,’ took an interest. This spread overall awareness of the International Space Station.”
Colbert says: “I certainly hope NASA does the right thing. Just kidding, I hope they name it after me.”
I’m afraid it’s a longshot, Stephen. It would be so cool, but remember what happened in Hungary.
The Ministry of Economic Affairs and Transport of Hungary held a contest in 2006 to name its Northern M0 Danube bridge. The contest was held online and when Colbert caught wind of it, he urged viewers to write him in. It worked. The name “Stephen Colbert” won by nearly 9,000 votes (No. 2 was Jon Stewart). The Ministry acknowledged the win and the country’s ambassador came on The Colbert Report to share the news. In the end, the Ministry overruled the vote and declared the bridge’s official name The Megyeri Bridge
