NASA flirts with the sale

NASA is almost synonymous with science, discovery and exploration. The agency has managed to stay away from almost all political storms and cultural controversies, while remaining neutral and focusing on science. But all this could change thanks to a new impetus from some members of the NASA Advisory Board.

On Friday, an advisory subcommittee decided to allow NASA to venture into the nascent space tourism sector by selling seats on its rockets. This is a major reversal of typical NASA methods, in which the agency almost exclusively uses professional astronauts with years of training and experience. NASA only took ordinary citizens into spacecraft in a handful of unique circumstances, and at least one of them ended disastrously.

Maxar Technologies' Michael Gold led the subcommittee's vote to change the change. From now on, the proposal will be put to the vote of the whole advisory council. If that happened, we could start seeing tourists boarding NASA rockets. Of course, NASA still needs a real rocket, which means that we will not have NASA tourist trips before the end of the next SLS rocket, whatever the situation.

According to Washington Post, this seems to be part of a broader trend within NASA to work more closely with its trading partners. The agency is also studying proposals to allow companies to use its logo, to let astronauts play in commercials and commercials, to allow NASA to approve products and services and even to let the agency assign the rights to naming its rockets. In other words, NASA is flirting with the sale.

"NASA has the best brand in the world and it is important for us to make sure to use it in ways that help people perceive the United States in a different way around the world," said the administrator of NASA. Jim Bridenstine at the To post.

There is no question that NASA needs this money. Funds allocated to the space agency have been steadily declining since the 1960s, and additional partnerships with companies will help NASA launch more rockets, satellites and spaceships to explore our planet and our solar system. But if NASA starts selling to the highest bidder, it could compromise the strength of the "best brand in the world".

If this change happens, we must all hope that the NASA brand will be strong enough to survive.

Source: Washington Post