San Diego Space Society

Name the New ISS Node

Posted by Chris Radcliff in Contests on February 20, 2009

NASA is asking for your help naming the next piece of the International Space Station. It’s currently called Node 3, but I bet you can be more imaginative than that! The Help NASA Name Node 3 page has all the details:

The name should reflect the spirit of exploration and cooperation embodied by the space station, and follow in the tradition set by Node 1 “Unity” and Node 2 “Harmony”. Node 3 will connect to the port side of the Unity Node and will provide room for many of the station’s life support systems, in the form of eight refrigerator-sized racks.

Once the cupola is attached to one of the module’s six ports, it will offer astronauts a spectacular view of both their home planet and their home in space.  The cupola’s six rectangular windows and one circular window overhead will show a panoramic view that will be unrivaled by any other spacecraft ever flown. Aside from providing a perfect location to observe and photograph the Earth, the cupola also will contain a robotics workstation, where astronauts will be able to control the station’s giant robotic arm.

Voting will be open until March 20th, and NASA will announce the winning name in April. If you submit a name (or just think of a funny one), share it in the comments here.