NASA explores brand rockets, spacecraft to stimulate exploration

If NASA leader Jim Bridenstine succeeds, all of this could be possible.

Bridenstine wants the space agency to study the possibility of selling the naming rights for rockets and spacecraft in order to speed up the commercialization of the low Earth orbit and free up money for the exploration of the space. He would also like to increase the profile of astronauts and possibly allow them to benefit as well as athletes.

"I'd like to see kids growing up instead of wanting to be a professional sports star, I'd like to see them grow up wanting to be NASA's astronaut or NASA scientist," Bridenstine told the Advisory Council. from NASA recently. . "I'd like to see NASA astronauts one day on the cover of a cereal box, embedded in American culture."

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This is not a completely new idea: brands are associated with space flights since the dawn of the space age, marketing everything from Tang to Corvette, through dinners, pens and television watches.

In the 1990s we talked about big commercial sponsorship deals that ended up with nothing. Mike McCulley, a retired shuttle pilot and former CEO of United Space Alliance, recalls Kellogg's interest in Tony the Tiger's envelope on the shuttle's giant orange fuel tank. But he said such discussions had never gone beyond brainstorming.

A rendering of the NASA space launch system, or SLS. (Photo: NASA)

Experts say laws and policies prohibiting astronauts from accepting products, including limiting the commercial experiences they are allowed to work in orbit, could be helpful and generate additional cash for the agency.

Stephen Colbert, host of "The Late Show", immediately made fun of the brand concept, with a parody of Neil Armstrong saying, "It's a small step for the man, a comfortable jump thanks to the insoles of Dr. Scholl! Houston, I'm gellin '! "

While playing, Bridenstine responded with a tweet asking if "The Tonight Show" would rather mark a rocket.

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"Jimmy Fallon, you," NASA's administrator wrote, showing Fallon's image on the nose of a United Launch Alliance Delta II rocket, and then preparing to launch a NASA science mission from California.

To pave the way for this latest brand frontier, Bridenstine has created a new advisory board to determine what is possible. The committee will review all regulatory barriers to commercial progress in low Earth orbit. The goal of Mike Gold, the committee's leader: helping NASA "reach the speed of paperwork out".

The International Space Station is depicted on this image photographed by a member of the Space Shuttle Discovery STS-133 crew after the station and shuttle began their relative separation after the unsettling on March 7, 2011. (Photo: NASA)

Bridenstine's proposal comes at a time when private space companies backed by billionaires like Elon Musk's SpaceX, Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin and Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic dominate the space flight industry and are getting closer to the air tourists. Until now, it is unclear whether the proposed branding strategy would apply to NASA-owned rockets and space vehicles, or only to missions carried out by commercial companies, such as SpaceX.

In the space of one year, NASA astronauts will begin to fly to the International Space Station on the NASA "Commercial Crew" capsules operated by Boeing and SpaceX. The capsules will have additional seats that could be filled by private astronauts or wealthy tourists who are not bound by NASA's restrictions on sponsorship and endorsements.

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In the longer term, the Trump administration wants to end direct federal support for the space station in 2025, hoping that commercial space companies will take over or put into service new stations that promote research and trade in Earth orbit. low. NASA wants to focus on the return of humans to the moon.

Would branding really change the finances of NASA? The next flight of NASA's Space Launch System rocket is expected to cost at least $ 1 billion per launch. The shuttle was only a fraction of that amount, and McCulley said corporate sponsorship would probably have generated only a few cents overall.

Pizza Hut has affixed its logo on a Russian Proton rocket launched from Kazakhstan on July 12, 2000, carrying the Zvezda module of the International Space Station. (Photo: Khrunichev Space Center)

Then there are questions like: where would the naming rights revenue or the image of an astronaut go on a Wheaties cereal box? Who would decide? Who would negotiate the agreements?

"There are a lot of opportunities for sponsorship, and I do not reject it completely, but it also opens up a Pandora problem box – around flight safety, undue influence, decisions said Richard Jurek, co-author of "Marketing the Moon: the sale of the Apollo Lunar program".

Liability is another concern.

In 2000, Pizza Hut paid $ 1 million to put its new logo on a Russian Proton rocket that launched a module on the first space stations. The launch was a success, but what would have happened so badly? Would any one want to accept such risks on missions that transport people?

A commercial advertiser can then influence critical decisions and impact security.

Jurek wonders if sponsorships would open the door to mission controllers or second-rate astronauts.

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"Do they make a decision based on the money and their ability to promote their sponsor, or the real life and death decision that they must make at that time?" he said.

Greed and abuse are other considerations. Companies can seek a benefit in contract offers by purchasing naming rights or by distributing mentions to astronauts.

The perceptions of astronauts who abuse the privilege of representing the nation in space by personally benefiting are at the root of some of the current restrictions. The Apollo 15 astronauts unleashed a congressional investigation after flying to the moon and signed the first day's post envelopes for a German stamp dealer who had promised to pay them. Congress has only recently passed legislation giving Apollo and its former aircraft owners the right to sell personal items and souvenirs that NASA had attempted to recover.

Bridenstine argues that the limitations imposed on astronauts have diminished their visibility and stature as American heroes.

Despite the potential pitfalls, advertising is seen as an inevitable and essential means for private companies to one day earn money in space – a future that NASA wants to accelerate.

"Brands are part of our culture here on Earth, so why should not they be part of the culture we're taking off the Earth?" Asked Robert Pearlman, editor-in-chief of CollectSpace.com.

Follow James Dean on Twitter: @flatoday_jdean

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