Live in Orbit: COLBERT Treadmill on Station

The famously named COLBERT treadmill is now officially a piece - a bunch of pieces, actually - of International Space Station hardware.

While two spacewalkers have been working outside the station, crews inside have been unloading cargo from the Leonardo module, which on Monday was lifted from shuttle Discovery's payload bay and attached to a docking port.

The treadmill rack accounted for roughly 2,200 pounds of the more than 15,000 hauled up in Leonardo. Scores of pieces filled more than six bags, and will take more than 20 hours to assemble later this month.

The treadmill gained fame after comedian Stephen Colbert, the host of the Comedy Central network's "The Colbert Report," launched a write-in campaign that made his name the top vote-getter in NASA's contest to name Node 3, a station module set for launch in February.

NASA named the module Tranquility, marking the 40th anniversary of Apollo 11's moon landing at Tranquility Base.

But on Colbert's program in April, astronaut Sunita Williams offered a consolation prize: the Combined Operational Load Bearing External Resistance Treadmill, or COLBERT.

The treadmill is the second on the station, and an important addition to a suite of exercise equipment that six crew members must take turns on to stay fit.

Exercise is crucial to limiting bone and muscle density loss during long-duration flights, and each station resident works out for more than two hours a day.

Colbert offered media outlets the following statement before Discovery's launch: "I'm so proud my treadmill will be going into space to help trim down those famously fat astronauts. Lay off the Tang, Chubby!"

Other important gear delivered by Discovery was transferred to the station today.

The third of four sleeping stations, or crew quarters, will be temporarily housed in the Japanese Kibo lab and used by Frank DeWinne of the European Space Agency.

Later it will be moved to the Harmony module, where all four bedrooms will be clustered to better protect the occupants from radiation exposure.

A rack holding a back-up air purification system was also moved over to the outpost. It will temporarily be stored in Kibo and later moved to Tranquility.

IMAGE NOTE: Above, International Space Station flight engineer Mike Barratt helps unload the COLBERT treadmill from the Leonardo cargo module. COLBERT is adapted from a regular treadmill available on Earth. Engineers designed a structure to support the device that will let astronauts run on it without shaking the rest of the station or disturbing delicate experiments taking place in the weightless environment. Credit: NASA. At middle, the official patch for "COLBERT," the Combined Operational Load Bearing External Resistance Treadmill. Credit: NASA. Bottom: Discovery mission specialist Christer Fuglesang helps unload cargo.