Doug Cornelius .com

For the 50th Anniversary of NASA, the Smithsonian Air & Space Magazine has published the Top NASA Photos of All Time, with 50 indelible images from the first 50 years of spaceflight.

Separately, NASA has published its own 50 Images Celebrating NASA’s 50th anniversary.

Of course the anniversary was October 1, 2008, but I just found theses great collections of photos.

The bright sun greets the International Space Station in this Nov. 22 image, taken from the Russian section of the orbital outpost and photographed by the STS-129 crew.

Image Credit: NASA
The Brightness of the Sun

NASA opened itself to the public for help in naming the latest module for the International Space Station. After over 1 million votes, the winner is “Colbert.” That is Stephen Colbert, the Comedy Central pundit.

But wait a minute, the contest rules sat that NASA will only take the results of voting into consideration. After over 1 million votes, the winner is “Tranquility.” That is the Sea of Tranquility on the moon where Apollo 11 landed.

Sorry Mr. Colbert, NASA avoids naming its stuff after living people. Is there is consolation prize for Mr. Colbert?

Yes!!! This wonderful treadmill.  NASA plans to place this treadmill in the space station and is willing to rename it the ‘Combined Operational Load Bearing External Resistance Treadmill,’ or COLBERT.

They even made this special patch for the treadmill, with a cartoon depiction of the treadmill and the acronym.

But after closely monitoring the voting results, who would break the news to Mr. Colbert that he was only going to get the consolation prize?

Suni Williams!!! Two years ago she ran 26.2 miles on a space station treadmill to simulate her running of the Boston Marathon. Here is the video of her appearance on The Colbert Report: