As of Monday night (March 23rd), NASA had yet to officially announce the name of the upcoming Node 3 to be attached to the International Space Station. There is some controversy with the voting process as Stephen Colbert, presenter of the Comedy Channel’s “Colbert Report”, used his significant media presence to secure a win of the vote after appealing to his audience to vote for “Colbert”. NASA allowed the name to remain as a candidate and it went on to win the competition. Naturally, this outcome drew some surprise and doubt as to whether NASA will keep “Colbert” at all. In second place is the far more palatable “Serenity”, more suitable on so many levels.
However, should NASA go with the popular vote and name Node 3 “Colbert”, it might be seen as setting a bad president that celebrities can use their TV presence to force the outcome of what should be a scientific vote (and therefore get some stellar free advertising). If NASA decides not to use “Colbert” in favour of the second official choice of “Serenity”, NASA will suffer accusations of preventing the democratic process, thereby making public participation in mission naming a farce. Either way, although fairly minor, there could be some trouble ahead, and possibly bad press for NASA.
Therefore, as the Brian Bat Foundation‘s first official business, we are putting forward a proposition that in the event of a Node 3 naming dispute, NASA should consider using another, more suitable name for Node 3. It is not the name, it is the memory that is important, the memory of Brian the Discovery Bat who lost his life during the launch of the most recent shuttle mission to the ISS, STS-119. The Node 3 voting process was nearly over on that fateful Sunday night at Cape Canaveral, so voting for the name “Brian” wasn’t a possibility.
It’s about time Brian and all the other animals that have sacrificed their lives in the name of human space exploration are remembered in space as well as on the ground. Perhaps a component on the orbiting manned outpost could be the ideal location for such a memorial. Now that would be awesome!
A special thanks to @Barstein for suggesting the new possible name for Node 3 and to the ever watching spirit of Brian, @DiscoveryBat
astroengine.com 
I like this; nice one Ian!!! 😉
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Hmmm…. you are asking me to choose a dead celeb, who can’t really make his wishes known, over a live celeb, who really doesn’t care? I need to think this one thru…
Well yes!
Bat on a mission – sequel.
Second possible official business for Brian the Brave:
Considering bats thrive on darkness of deep blue nights of the universe sunny side down, Bat Foundation could well enough consider joining the Dark Skies-Fight Light Pollution thing, couldn’t he :)?
Excellent idea, calling a node Brian. That way NASA can take the attention away from Colbert and focus on Brian and at the same time keep the democratic process intact.
Brian can be used to overshine Colbert so to speak. And Brian is after all connected to a particular space launch. COlbert will be forgotten as the name cannot be hooked on something related to space activities.
I think you seriously should offer this solution to NASA.
Seriously!!
I do believe u mean ‘precedent’ – An act or instance that may be used as an example in dealing with subsequent similar instances.
not ‘president’
that's cool , thank's for article