Just imagine the news report. “earlier today nasa announced it’s new name for the newest peice of the space station…GBFANS.COM was announced as the winner of the contest NASA was holding online…”
I’m sorry, but “serenity” is just another stupid lame ass name, because Nasa is lame when they name 90% of things. If they don’t go with Colbert, they shouldn’t have a voting system in the first place. Considering that Colbert has, at times, given publicity to Nasa (not just with the space module naming), I think they owe him. Course, i’m guessing they’ll lame out, partly because I wonder if they have any sense of humor.
That’s different, “Enterprise” still sounds appropriate for the endeavor of space exploration and pioneering, same with “Serenity” even if you exclude the Firefly context. Futhermore, even though it was a result of popular vote, it was still space related.
“Colbert” has no relation to space whatsoever, will clash with the existing naming convention for the other parts of the station and as funny as Stephen is, will only be culturally relevent for as long as he’s still popular.
How long do you think the ISS would be in orbit? I doubt people would forget who Stephen Colbert is by the time the space station is abandoned or that particular module is repalced. If they wanted to have a matching, again, they shouldn’t have had a voting process in the first place. Given how many people wanted the module to be named Colbert (vs. the second place finisher, which was down by, what, 200,000 votes?), that and everything else behind it makes it culturally revelant, and they should go with it. Of course, they could alienate the voters, in which case, the average person will care even less about what Nasa is up to.
I honestly don’t know, but I’d assumed it would at least be a while.
But that is immaterial, they gave people the choice of four names; Earthrise, Legacy, Serenity & Venture, four names that are all themed around space, planetary bodies or the spirit that embodies space travel. There was nothing on the site that said any suggested names would be chosen.
Rubbish, it wasn’t culturally relevant it was an internet meme. If they’d done that without him goading them on then there may have been some weight to that argument but he spurred them on. How many would’ve posted his name had he not told them to do it?
Alienate the Colbert Nation, it’s not like NASA will lose business from them by not naming the module after Colbert. and if they truely resent the Administration for not using his name then too bad, it’s not NASA’s fault they assigned too much importance on him.
Thing is, I like Stephen Colbert, but I think it’s extremely stuck up of his fans who voted to demand his name be put on the module and completely ignore the one that was actually the official poll leader.
These were the stated rules when voting started. It basically means if people select a name NASA does not deem fit, such as “POOP”, they do not have to use that name. It gives NASA a right to pick any name it wants - even if that name garners zero votes or 5 million votes.
I will be surprised if it is named Colbert. Too much of a risk. Remember NASA is a tax payer funded entity, what if Colbert upsets some country - such as China - and they in turn redirect anger at the U.S. government due to them honoring Colbert with a space station.
Considering how much money they spend per year of American citizen’s money, I think they would not mind being ignored.
Obviously, a name should be chosen within reason (like nothing vulgar), but there’s no point in having a vote if you’re going to disregard the outcome. My argument is based not just on that, but on how much attention he has given to Nasa (remember, he’s also interviewed an astronaut at least once…and the one time I remember was live from the space station). Nasa hardly wants to be ignored, unless it’s because something bad happened, because they were more worried about their budget than safety. I also think that it is culturally relevant based in large part on the attention he’s given to Nasa, and how many people he got involved based on his bringing it up (i doubt everyone that found out about from his show voted his name). If Nasa didn’t want this happening, they should have prevented his name (or a variety of other names) from being voted upon in the first place. Given Stephen Colbert’s history on the show, and the attention he’s already given to Nasa (he’s a well known space nerd), they had to have seen this coming.If they really have a problem with it, they shouldn’t cry foul after the fact. Besides, as I’ve stated before, their naming conventions generally suck.