spacetoday.net: NASA names new ISS module "Tranquility"

Posted: Wed, Apr 15, 2009, 7:38 AM ET (1138 GMT)
Node 3

Bypassing the results of a poll, NASA announced Tuesday night that the new node for the International Space Station will be named "Tranquility", but gave the late-night comedian whose name topped the poll a consolation prize. NASA said it selected Tranquility to honor the 40th anniversary of Apollo 11, which landed on the Moon's Sea of Tranquility. The name was not one of the four finalist names for the Node 3 module announced by NASA in February, and finished far down the list of write-in names in an online poll administered by NASA that ended last month. The top vote-getter was Colbert, after late-night show host Stephen Colbert asked his viewers to write in his name. NASA announced that, rather than name the node after Colbert, it would name a treadmill that will be located in the module the Combined Operational Load Bearing External Resistance Treadmill, or COLBERT. NASA astronaut Suni Williams announced the names on Colbert's show.