NASA’s newest module for the International Space Station will get a new name tomorrow night, to be announced on the Comedy Central routine, “The Colbert Report.”
Announcing the name for Node 3 will be Expedition 14 and 15 astronaut Sunita “Suni” Williams.
The show will air at 11:30 p.m. ET tomorrow night.
The name, which will not be publicly released until the program airs, was selected from thousands of unique suggestions submitted on http://www.nasa.gov. The “Help Name Node 3” poll asked people to vote for the module’s name either by choosing one of four NASA options or by offering their own suggestion. The poll closed March 20.
“The node naming poll was organic and took on a life of its own,” said Bill Gerstenmaier, associate administrator for space operations at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “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.”
NASA originally planned to announce the node’s name April 28 after it arrived at Kennedy Space Center, Fla. However, the node’s arrival at Kennedy is delayed until next month, so the announcement moved to April 14.
The show’s producers offered to host the name selection announcement after comedian and host Stephen Colbert took interest during the census and urged his followers to post the name Colbert.
“I certainly hope NASA does the right thing,” said Colbert. “Just kidding, I hope they name it after me.”
Node 3 is a pressurized module that will provide room for many of the space station’s life support systems. Attached to the node is the cupola, a one-of-a-kind work station with six windows around the sides and one on top. Node 3 is targeted for launch late this year.