I bet those guys are having a celebratory drink or six right now.

Strangely enough, NASA chose NOT to use the most popular voted name on NASA's pre-approved list.... Serenity.

Actually I'm glad they didn't call it Serenity. Serenity is supposed to be a spaceship!

Though if it was the Serenity, would the starboard Shuttle docking bay be used for, ahem, conjugal visits, or the International Guild of Seamstresses*.

* Obscure Discworld link

At least give our alien overloads truth in advertising and call it Potted Meat.

I guess the point of the poll was to see just how stupid the voting public really is. It was obviously a resounding success.

Perhaps the problem was that they had forgotten that Serenity was also the name of the movie version of the popular TV series Firefly. And the theme of that show could suggest that it is a disguised Western set in the post-Civil War period, creating political controversy.

I could use some tranquility.

At least common sense prevailed in that tossers like Colbert should be given short shrift.

There is no reason for them not to use Serenity (which was also the name of the ship in firefly, not just the film) since they already used Enterprise. My guess is that they will save it for a shuttle or something rather than just part of the ISS

EUREKA!!! Problem Solved!

As that damn piss-filter can recover airborne moisture*, no sweat!

(Oops...)

*"In more positive developments, it seems that recycling equipment designed to harvest and reprocess astronauts' emitted body moisture from the station atmosphere is working fine" from http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/03/23/new_upa_still_playing_up/

I'm highly amused by the sense of humour NASA have displayed in naming the running machine COLBERT. This strikes me as a move entirely in the same vein as Colbert's campaign, and a fitting tribute.

Everyone cross out "Serenity" and write in "Giant Dushe"...

"At least common sense prevailed in that tossers like Colbert should be given short shrift."

Do explain?

is the name of a space habitat in Peter F. Hamilton's "The Night's Dawn" trilogy, isn't it?

I bet there's more then one scifi fan working at Nasa...

There were three Enterprises in the British Navy way before you damn Yankees started up with the whole "pinching our naval glories" bit. Oh, and three Enterprizes, which would seem to be a better candidate for a name for a US naval vessel, given the poor standards of spelling evident on the other side of the Atlantic.