NASA rejects democracy, names ISS node 'Tranquility'

NASA has selected the name "Tranquility" for the International Space Station's new living quarters, not only rejecting attempts by Comedy Central's Steven Colbert to get the new node named after himself but also largely ignoring a popular vote on the subject. Despite "Colbert" winning the space agency's Help Name Node 3 …

[Anonymous Coward]

That's the main Eve-online server

I bet those guys are having a celebratory drink or six right now.

[MacRat]

Tranquility?

Strangely enough, NASA chose NOT to use the most popular voted name on NASA's pre-approved list.... Serenity.

[John]

should have called it Socks

Actually I'm glad they didn't call it Serenity. Serenity is supposed to be a spaceship!

Though if it was the Serenity, would the starboard Shuttle docking bay be used for, ahem, conjugal visits, or the International Guild of Seamstresses*.

* Obscure Discworld link

[Anonymous Coward]

They should have named it XENU

For the lulz.

Still, I can live with Tranquility, they named it after the EVE Online server :)

[Petrea Mitchell]

Serenity wasn't exactly representative either...

Whatever else Colbert can take away from this, apparently his fanbase can beat up Joss Whedon's fanbase (who were most of the votes for Serenity).

[JC]

Wrong Name

At least give our alien overloads truth in advertising and call it Potted Meat.

[Alex maximus]

Apollo 11

and an eleven-character name "Tranquility".

Coincidence?

Time to dust of the tin-foil hats ;)

[raving angry loony]

voting?

I guess the point of the poll was to see just how stupid the voting public really is. It was obviously a resounding success.

[John Savard]

Mistake

Perhaps the problem was that they had forgotten that Serenity was also the name of the movie version of the popular TV series Firefly. And the theme of that show could suggest that it is a disguised Western set in the post-Civil War period, creating political controversy.

[Martin Budden]

they should have named it Cookie

to offset the BBC's habit of ignoring poll results

[Trokair]

Jump off a bridge

If you are going to make a public vote for something within a federal funded institution, you should stick by the results. Colbert would have been rediculous of course, but if the competition was fair I say give him his piece of space junk.

[Joe Cooper]

Serenity

They can't name it serenity now because Colbert was really loud about the fact that its a brand of adult diapers, and that has some bad associations with NASA now.

Unfortunately, it turns out there is ALSO a brand of adult diapers named tranquility.

Is nothing sacred??

[Dabooka]

They've named it after Apollo 11's landing?

So why isn't it called Sonoran then?

[Phil Cooke]

@Mycho

Knowing Oveur, I suspect they are on pint 20 or 30 by now, that man can drink! Lets hope the node has less downtime then TQ tho :p

[P. Lee]

Serenity Now!

I could use some tranquility.

[cdilla]

common sense

At least common sense prevailed in that tossers like Colbert should be given short shrift.

[Anonymous Coward]

Serenity

There is no reason for them not to use Serenity (which was also the name of the ship in firefly, not just the film) since they already used Enterprise. My guess is that they will save it for a shuttle or something rather than just part of the ISS

[EmperorFromage]

@Jump off a bridge

I assume you mean the Stephen Colbert bridge in Hungary ? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megyeri_Bridge

[The Prevaricator]

wot? no democracy?

Nice to see NASA have finally realised that you get nowhere in space under a democracy. The Russians, were always more innovative for this reason. Even the International Astronomical Union were sly enough to vote out Pluto from the league of extraordinary planets before the nay-sayers could get to the relevant conference.

In Soviet NASA, Colbert run on You! Oh no wait...

[Andus McCoatover]

"Get sweaty on the COLBERT"

EUREKA!!! Problem Solved!

As that damn piss-filter can recover airborne moisture*, no sweat!

(Oops...)

*"In more positive developments, it seems that recycling equipment designed to harvest and reprocess astronauts' emitted body moisture from the station atmosphere is working fine" from http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/03/23/new_upa_still_playing_up/

[Anonymous Coward]

Publicity attained, mission accomplished

I'm highly amused by the sense of humour NASA have displayed in naming the running machine COLBERT. This strikes me as a move entirely in the same vein as Colbert's campaign, and a fitting tribute.

[AB]

@cdilla

"At least common sense prevailed in that tossers like Colbert should be given short shrift."

Do explain?

[Anonymous Coward]

@Nathan Hobbs

Hey Turd Sandwich, learn to spell! (It's spelled D-O-U-C-H-E)

[Rachel]

@ AC

I agree that NASA might be saving 'Serenity' for an actual ship-like thing, cause like you said, they did it with Enterprise! Plus, I could imagine a very marketing-savvy person at NASA seeing the potential benefit in getting a group of people that can so effectively write letters and petition and in general kick up a fuss about not getting what they want (again, like the Trekkies) interested in what they're doing...

-Mine's the brown one... =)

[Anonymous Coward]

So bland

"Tranquility?" "Serenity?" Gawd, how disappointing.

Me? I think "Red Dwarf" would be much more entertaining!

[Petrea Mitchell]

Enterprise...

...had a better claim, from already being a traditional ship name in the US Navy (which is why it got used on Star Trek).

[Anonymous Coward]

Tranquility...

is the name of a space habitat in Peter F. Hamilton's "The Night's Dawn" trilogy, isn't it?

I bet there's more then one scifi fan working at Nasa...

[Anonymous Coward]

@ Petrea Mitchell

There were three Enterprises in the British Navy way before you damn Yankees started up with the whole "pinching our naval glories" bit. Oh, and three Enterprizes, which would seem to be a better candidate for a name for a US naval vessel, given the poor standards of spelling evident on the other side of the Atlantic.