Stephen Colbert to be shot into space

No, not via cannon or people-launcher. Stephen Colbert’s DNA is being sent into space in October. His DNA will be digitized and brought to the International Space Station by Richard Garriott, a video game designer and future astronaut.

Richard Garriott is a prominent video game developer and designer and has been involved in such well-known projects as Ultima Online and City of Heroes–both Mass Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games.

Garriott also sits on the board of The X Prize, a group that wants to encourage privatized space exploration. As for Colbert’s DNA, it will be deposited for an “Immortality Drive”, as Garriott calls it. The purpose for this “Immortality Drive” would be to clone Stephen Colbert in the event that the earth is ever destroyed.

“I am thrilled to have my DNA shot into space, as this brings me one step closer to my lifelong dream of being the baby at the end of 2001″ Colbert said in a written statement, referring to the 1968 landmark science fiction film “2001: A Space Odyssey.”