Posted on 03/23/2009 6:08:19 PM PDT by dware
photo, Stephen Colbert poses in New York. (AP Photo/Jason DeCrow, …
* Stephen Colbert Slideshow:Stephen Colbert
WASHINGTON – NASA's online contest to name a new room at the international space station went awry. Comedian Stephen Colbert won.
The name "Colbert" beat out NASA's four suggested options in the space agency's effort to have the public help name the addition. The new room will be launched later this year.
NASA's mistake was allowing write-ins. Colbert urged viewers of his Comedy Central show, "The Colbert Report" to write in his name. And they complied, with 230,539 votes. That clobbered Serenity, one of the NASA choices, by more than 40,000 votes. Nearly 1.2 million votes were cast by the time the contest ended Friday.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
NASA Astronaut: "And this is the Colbert Room..."
I guess they didn’t like my names. “The Global Warming Room” and “The Climate Change Room.” Oh well...I don’t think NASA has a sense of humor anyway.
And America’s long march to the lowest common denominator continues.................
But NASA has a history of losing naming battles to pop culture:
it [the first space shuttle] was originally planned to be named Constitution. However, a write-in campaign caused it to be renamed after the Starship Enterprise, featured on the television show Star Trek.[3]
Constitution would have been better.
ping
Hopefully there is some sanity at NASA and they go with Serenity. Easily my favorite Sci-fi movie.
Personally? I like the fact Colbert won. Have you read his book?
As much as I think it’s fun and hilarious that Colbert won, I’d have still voted for Serenity, cause it’s even more awesome. Although, Colbert’s write-in campaign was started because apparently at the time, ‘Xenu’ was the leading write-in vote...
Oh, well, perhaps they can still name one of the Shuttle replacements ‘Serenity’. That would be even more awesome than just a room on the ISS =)
LOL! We should have spammed ‘em with “FreeRepublic”.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.