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NASA May Sell Corporate Naming Rights For Rockets, Spacecraft (al.com)
schwit1 shares a report from Alabama Local News: NASA's administrator Jim Bridenstine has directed the space agency to look at boosting its brand by selling naming rights to rockets and spacecraft and allowing its astronauts to appear in commercials and on cereal boxes, as if they were celebrity athletes. While officials stress that nothing has been decided, the idea could mark a giant cultural leap for the taxpayer-funded government agency and could run into ethics regulations that prevent government officials from using public office for private gain.
"Is it possible for NASA to offset some of its costs by selling the naming rights to its spacecraft, or the naming rights to its rockets," Bridenstine said. "I'm telling you there is interest in that right now. The question is: Is it possible? The answer is: I don't know, but we want somebody to give us advice on whether it is." He also said he wanted astronauts to be not only more accessible to journalists but even to participate in marketing opportunities to boost their brands - and that of the space agency. "I'd like to see kids growing up, instead of maybe wanting to be like a professional sports star, I'd like to see them grow up wanting to be a NASA astronaut, or a NASA scientist," he said. "I'd like to see, maybe one day, NASA astronauts on the cover of a cereal box, embedded into the American culture."
"Is it possible for NASA to offset some of its costs by selling the naming rights to its spacecraft, or the naming rights to its rockets," Bridenstine said. "I'm telling you there is interest in that right now. The question is: Is it possible? The answer is: I don't know, but we want somebody to give us advice on whether it is." He also said he wanted astronauts to be not only more accessible to journalists but even to participate in marketing opportunities to boost their brands - and that of the space agency. "I'd like to see kids growing up, instead of maybe wanting to be like a professional sports star, I'd like to see them grow up wanting to be a NASA astronaut, or a NASA scientist," he said. "I'd like to see, maybe one day, NASA astronauts on the cover of a cereal box, embedded into the American culture."
Perfect brand for rocket.
"I'd like to see kids growing up, instead of maybe wanting to be like a professional sports star, I'd like to see them grow up wanting to be a NASA astronaut, or a NASA scientist,"
Me too.
But if that happens because someone is appearing in commercials instead of news, then something is wrong on a much more fundamental level.
bickerdyke
So now Bridenstine wants to take what NASA stands for and make it stand for anything else? The US Army could do the same with their uniforms. Make them like NASCAR outfits with logos and stuff (just as bright though, so they stand out). Judges could logo up their robes so we know who's paying for justice. We already pay for something that is supposed to stand for what is best in us, pushing at the final frontier. If the endeavor is not worth it, selling ads for chump change will make that clear.
Think the idea is new? This joke is from back when the space race was on.
"General! The Soviets are on the moon! And they painted it red!"
"Fine. Load the next Apollo with white paint and have the crew paint "Coca Cola" all over it"
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
If they open up corporate naming, I suspect this will not be far behind.
Here is the thing about the shuttle program: it was really a military program masquerading as a civilian system, and getting the civilian budget to fund it. All of the costly, dangerous aspects of its design can be traced to military requirements inserted into the program.
The whole purpose of the expensive fragile large space plane configuration were to allow it to put huge reconnaissance satellites from the Space Shuttle launch facility at Vandenburg AFB, and land it back at the base, i.e. operate it as an entirely classified system from a military base. This capability was never used even once. No shuttle was ever launched from Vandenburg. It never went into polar orbit.
None of this was public information at the time. Though the plans for the Vandenburg AFB launch site was no secret (that part could not be kept hidden, any more than the existence of Area 51), the actual development and management program for the shuttle was a black program, with a civilian cover. It could be compared to the Hughes Glomar Explorer project - claimed to be for seabed mining, but was really a CIA operation to recover a Soviet nuclear submarine that sank.
It was a cause of wonder for many years to me (and others) about how the engineers and NASA could be so very wrong about all the things the shuttle was supposed to do: its turn around time, its launch rate, its cost, its development schedule, etc.
By the 1990s the real story came out, and the mysteries evaporated. They weren't wrong about what it was designed to do, they were simply lying ("disinforming") in public about it. The various justifications offered for it in public were cover stories, nothing more.
The public development schedule was a false one as well. The program was famously delayed by a couple of years, but not really. It hit its real (secret) project plan, but the public plan was used to help support congressional funding.
Starships were meant to fly, Hands up and touch the sky - Nicky Minaj