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Jim Bridenstine, NASA Administrator, asked a NASA Advisory Board committee whether it was possible to raise funds for space agency missions by selling various rights to corporate sponsors.
"Is it possible for NASA to offset some of its costs by selling the naming rights of its spacecraft?" Bridenstine said. "Or the naming rights of its rockets? I tell you, there is interest in that now.
In addition, Bridenstine is also considering the possibility of allowing astronauts to sign approval contracts. Maybe they could appear on cereal boxes as sports stars, said Bridenstine. All these spaceships delivering goods between Earth and the International Space Station? Well, it's an opportunity for some companies to have access to first-class branded real estate.
Ok, why not name Mars after Coca-Cola while we're there? Stephen Colbert showed how this idea – which, frankly, is not the worst we have heard from this administration – could be realized. The late show The host made fun of Bridenstine's proposal by showing his audience what moon landing might look like with such rules.
At present, federal employees are prohibited from supporting commercial projects and, in accordance with NASA's Ethics Guidelines, employees may not use the Public Service for private gain. Bridenstine is aware of this fact but has stated that he would like the committee to study the possibility of exempting certain employees and NASA operations from the rule.
Corporate sponsorships in space are not entirely new. For example, in 2000, Pizza Hut affixed its logo on a Russian rocket. Russian cosmonauts, who are not subject to the same rules as NASA, have also signed approval agreements. Cosmonaut Mikhail Tyurin launched a golf ball in orbit as part of a sponsorship paid by Element 21, a Canadian golf company.
To be fair, NASA really needs a lot of money. The agency is ready to return to the moon to set ambitious long-term goals: land on an asteroid and send humans to Mars. The current budget proposals, meanwhile, suggest that NASA funding will remain stable until 2023.
These missions cost billions of dollars. Any advertising revenue would barely block such a large sum. Nobody wants to see astronauts endorsing logos such as NASCAR runners or see the experience of stained space penetration of commercials. For some, so accustomed to capitalism, it might be a strange idea – but there are things that can not and should not be put on sale.
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