NASA Named a Treadmill in Honor of Stephen Colbert

Sometimes the best justification for a backronym is a joke, and NASA did just that with, of all things, a treadmill. In 2010, NASA conducted a competition to let the general public choose the name of a space station chamber. They allowed people to send in their own ideas but provided four options that were quite NASA-esque in nature. Stephen Colbert snatched the idea when enough of his followers submitted his name as the winning submission.

Stephen Colbert would receive a consolation prize from NASA, they said, but they would not rename the entire room after him. NASA took the situation in stride. There is now a piece of apparatus called the COLBERT, which stands for Combined Operational Load Bearing External Resistance Treadmill, in place of the chamber. Because there is no gravity in space, astronauts need to exercise a lot to keep in shape, thus they will now use the COLBERT treadmill.