Laughing All the Way to Space

Hello, I’m Charlotte Bellis and you’re on Newsy.com.

American comedian Stephen Colbert is at it again.

With the help of his fans, Colbert won a NASA contest to get his name on the new wing of the International Space Station.

But, on the night of the announcement, NASA threw Colbert a curveball, citing their contest rules that allow them to have the final say:
““ Let’s get right to it, ok. The votes have been tabulated, NASA has sequestered themselves and come up with the decision, what’s the space node called?”
“Well, we’ve decided that node 3 will be called Tranquility, and that is based off of…”
BOOOOOO” (The Colbert Report)

NASA gave voters four names to choose from, or they could add their own suggestion.

Colbert’s name was the #1 Suggestion earning 230,000 votes out of more than a million responses as you see here on the NASA.gov website.

Newsday suggested that the fault lies in the contest, not with Colbert.

“Honestly, NASA does look a little silly in all this, don't you think? They hold a contest to name the thing, and don't even bother to use the TWO names that were voted in. So much for ridiculous contests like this...” (Newsday)

This isn’t the first time Colbert and his fans have petitioned to have his name added to something.

In 2006 Colbert tried to have a bridge in Hungary named after him. He also tried to add his name to both the Democratic and Republican primary ballots in South Carolina in 2007.

Ice Cream giant Ben and Jerry named a new flavor “AmeriCone Dream” after him and Virgin Air also named one if its planes Air Colbert.

Although NASA rejected Colbert initially, they will name a treadmill on the space station after him.

Is the treadmill a fair trade? Or do you think this was all a publicity stunt by Colbert’s show?