Appears In PSA For The Space Agency

Stephen Colbert, host of the nightly "The Colbert Report," said in a new NASA public service announcement released Thursday that he's always been a huge fan of space. The talk show host tells his Colbert Nation -- and the world -- that he now likes space even more "because NASA is doing great things on the International Space Station (ISS)."

The completion of the ISS ushered in new era of research and discovery in a near gravity-free environment. Research on the orbital laboratory is focused on four areas: human health and exploration; basic life and physical sciences; earth and space science; and technology development to enable future exploration.

Colbert specifically mentions the agency's work aboard the space station to develop new vaccines to fight infectious and deadly diseases, such as salmonella and pneumonia. As resistance toward current antibiotics becomes more common, there is an increasing need for alternative treatments.

The Comedy Central comedian has had a continuing interest in the ISS. In 2009, when NASA asked the public to help name the station's Node 3, Colbert urged his followers to submit the name "Colbert." The name received the most entries and astronauts continue to exercise on the most famous treadmill in the world, the Combined Operational Load-Bearing External Resistance Treadmill or COLBERT, in the station's Tranquility module.

FMI: www.nasa.gov/topics/technology/features/colbert_psa.html