NASA: New node to be named Tranquility

WASHINGTON, April 15 (UPI) -- The U.S. space agency has named its new International Space Station module -- formerly known as Node 3 -- as "Tranquility."

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration said Tranquility was one of the top 10 suggestions submitted online by the public in the "Help Name Node 3" poll.

"Apollo 11 landed on the moon at the Sea of Tranquility 40 years ago this July," said Bill Gerstenmaier, associate NASA administrator for space operations. "We selected 'Tranquility' because it ties it to exploration and the moon and symbolizes the spirit of international cooperation embodied by the space station."

NASA announced the name Tuesday night during Comedy Central's "The Colbert Report." The cable show's producers offered to host the announcement after comedian Stephen Colbert urged his viewers to suggest the name "Colbert," which subsequently received the most entries.

"We don't typically name U.S. space station hardware after living people and this is no exception," Gerstenmaier said. "However, NASA is naming its new space station treadmill the 'Combined Operational Load Bearing External Resistance Treadmill,' or COLBERT. We have invited Stephen to Florida for the launch of COLBERT and to Houston to try out a version of the treadmill that astronauts train on."

The treadmill is to be launched in August and will be installed in the Tranquility module. A newly created patch will depict the acronym and an illustration of the treadmill.