TORONTO – Stephen Colbert gave a NASA project scientist an out-of this-world surprise on his show Monday night.
The late-night talk show host and political pundit “floated” across the room at the end of his show in a silver spacesuit, and honoured the former Voyager spacecraft project scientist Ed Stone with the NASA Distinguished Public Service Medal.
“I was on the Colbert Report to talk about what I think of as humankind’s greatest — and certainly most extensive — journey of exploration, and I certainly didn’t expect the host to hand me an award,” said Stone, a professor of physics at the California Institute of Technology and former director of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. “That surprise on my face was real.”
The medal is the highest honour a non-governmental person can receive from NASA.
Colbert often has scientists on his show including astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, a regular guest.
READ MORE: Voyager has become first spacecraft to leave the solar system
Voyager 2 was launched on Aug. 20, 1977. Voyager 1 launched two weeks later on Sept. 5.
The spacecraft capitalized on the location of the outer planets, Saturn, Jupiter, Uranus, and Neptune and were able to photograph them and conduct scientific research as they flew by the gas giants.
Stone served as the one and only project scientist for the Voyager spacecrafts.
In August 2013, NASA confirmed that Voyager 1 had left our solar system and was travelling in interstellar space, though it is a hotly debated topic among scientists.
READ MORE: Voyager 1 – Earth’s message in a bottle
As of September 2013, Voyager 1 was 18.7 billion kilometres from the sun. The spacecraft continues to send scientific information back to scientists on Earth.
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