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NASA Advertising Communications Government United States

NASA May Sell Corporate Naming Rights For Rockets, Spacecraft (al.com) 141

Posted by BeauHD from the final-frontier dept.
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."
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NASA May Sell Corporate Naming Rights For Rockets, Spacecraft More

NASA May Sell Corporate Naming Rights For Rockets, Spacecraft

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  • TAMPAX (Score:5, Funny)

    by NuclearCat ( 899738 ) on Tuesday September 11, 2018 @03:13AM (#57288660) Journal
    Perfect brand for rocket.

    • I can't wait for NASA rockets plastered with ads like Formula 1 cars. Red Bull, Ray Ban, Shell,... Would certainly liven them up a bit.

    • Tampax. Tamp it to the Max with Tampax.
    • Comment removed based on user account deletion

    • That's Charmin but Preparation H is truly a rocket that will go places.

  • bad idea.. very, very bad. (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    imagine paying $25 million to slap your company name on the side of a space craft and have all articles and press releases required to mention it by its "proper" name, and disaster strikes. 8 dead, program set back 3 years to investigate. news reports flood the airwaves for months, always mentioning your company name in their reporting of the disaster. your brand will forever be known as a spacecraft that blew up and killed astronauts. history books would be written that way, too, because your name would be

  • Commercials (Score:4, Insightful)

    by bickerdyke ( 670000 ) on Tuesday September 11, 2018 @03:18AM (#57288674)

    "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.

    • if that happens because someone is appearing in commercials instead of new

      In the early days of the space programme the astronauts were heavily promoted for their celebrity status. NASA profited greatly from that (if not financially) and many children grew up with the "I wanna be a [sic] astronaut" idea implanted in their heads.

      There is nothing wrong with commercialisation. Though I doubt many brands would want their name to be among the falling debris of a failed launch.

      Maybe we'll see rockets painted in appropriate colours with DUREX written large down the side?

    • Re:Commercials (Score:4, Insightful)

      by sad_ ( 7868 ) on Tuesday September 11, 2018 @06:53AM (#57289118) Homepage

      And more to point, we had that in the past, we kids were inspired by astronauts and knew their names, were amazed by the space ships, satellites and the visits to other planets. Somehow this all died and nobody cares anymore, except us, geeks & nerds.

      What happened? Certainly being more like a sport star isn't the answer, because they weren't sport-star-like back then.
      On the other hand, i still sometimes see this amazement in people in some cases, for example when the first spacex rockets landed or when we visited a comet.

      • Comment removed based on user account deletion

      • And more to point, we had that in the past, we kids were inspired by astronauts and knew their names, were amazed by the space ships, satellites and the visits to other planets. Somehow this all died and nobody cares anymore, except us, geeks & nerds.

        Yes. And this wasn't because they were in commercials back then.

      • Comment removed based on user account deletion

        • Obviously there were hundreds of people involved in the first rocket landing, and no one person clearly more praiseworthy for it than the others.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by Topwiz ( 1470979 )

          Name the person who landed the SpaceX the first time : Nobody, they are unmanned.

    • But if that happens because someone is appearing in commercials instead of news, then something is wrong on a much more fundamental level.

      . . . Why? Is the scientific progress made by NASA skewed if someone's face is on a box of Wheaties? Does the NICER cease rotation-resolved spectroscopy of emissions of neutron stars in the soft (0.2–12 keV) X-ray band if it's likeness is made into keychain trinkets?

      I mean, I get the sentiment. On reading the headline I was vaguely in the same camp. "oh god no, that'd be tacky as shit". We're putting NASA on some sort of special pedestal where it can only be praised in certain ways. To geeks, it'

      • Bring on the Coke-branded right booster

        Then look no further than the Pepsi Concorde. [heritageconcorde.com]

        Before you start frantically googling, yes it's real.

      • I wouldn't mind if they were celbrity enough to be on a cereal box. But they should be on there because they are famous for discovering that gap in the X-Ray emissions of the crab nebula and NOT being put on there hoping that would get them celebrity status and that celebrity status may spark that interest.

        BTW.. Stefan Gerst. Without looking up.

        But he is a regular on that kids show I'm a regular watcher of...

        • Chicken and egg problem. Fame begets fame. I agree no one should see advertisement as a.... pro-science movement and therefore... tax deductible? I know exactly what you're saying. There have been a lot of lame attempts at "pushing science". But if I saw some crabcakes with Martin C. Weisskopf on the side with a blurb about X-ray emissions and nebulas, I'd buy that up. And I don't even like crab cakes. The point is, I wouldn't think less of Martin for it. Nor the Chandra Observatory, or the science paper

  • "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,"

    Small anecdote: I remember almost nothing from my early childhood except this trauma from when I was 5-6 years old:
    Teacher asked us what we wanted to as grown up. Other kids said things like policeman, baker, etc. I said “astronaut!”. Teacher immediately replied “Impossible, you wear glasses!”
    Looking ba
    • that's a pretty cunning stunt right there

    • She was not really right anyway.
      Eye operations to fix sight problems are routine meanwhile.

    • Look at this way, if you survive 10-15 more years, you might actually be able to be an astronaut. Prove your childhood teacher wrong.
    • Comment removed based on user account deletion

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by k6mfw ( 1182893 )
      "Impossible, you wear glasses!" I'm thinking another course is take what Richard Garriott did. Make millions in another field, i.e. computer gaming, then buy a seat on a Soyuz. His dad was an astronaut, Richard saw how limited becoming a professional astronaut would be, so he took a different route (a "commercial" route!)

  • That's not gonna fly (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    At this point, trying to monetize-by-branding the NASA brand smells of desperation. NASA used to be cool. Going to space used to be cool. But then they just sat there and did nothing of use*, and their brand and even their entire league withered. Now they're going "oh hey spacex is cool so let's make us cool again too!"

    Yeah, no. You can only do so much with marketeering. You do have to have an actual product and/or service at some point.

    * The space shuttle was supposed to be a shuttle, but it wasn't: 250 mi

    • 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 [airspacemag.com].

      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 a

      • Aarggh.

        The whole purpose of the expensive fragile large space plane configuration was to allow it to put huge reconnaissance satellites into polar orbit 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.

  • How NASA destroys its "brand" (Score:5, Interesting)

    by paulfjeld ( 641367 ) on Tuesday September 11, 2018 @04:17AM (#57288812)
    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.

    • ... Judges could logo up their robes so we know who's paying for justice.

      You don't pay for justice. You rent it.

      As for becoming an astronaut... it seems the best thing to do is learn how to play guitar and practice those early Bowie tunes.

    • Judges? C'mon. It would be way more sensible if laws would have to include the line "powered by ...", at least it would be honest.

    • 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.

      Dibs on naming rights for a hydrogen bomb.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by q4Fry ( 1322209 )

        Dibs on naming rights for a hydrogen bomb.

        Let me introduce you to Mrs. Enola Gay Tibbets. It's not quite the same, but damned close.

    • So now Bridenstine wants to take what NASA stands for and make it stand for anything else?

      I know, right?

      We need to return to that Islamic outreach focus [telegraph.co.uk] that NASA used to have.

    • You laugh, but it'd honestly be nice if politicians wore those endorsement stickers.

  • Old joke (Score:5, Funny)

    by Opportunist ( 166417 ) on Tuesday September 11, 2018 @04:58AM (#57288894)

    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 know what will happen... (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    Rocket McRocketFace

    • I rather think that a Microsoft-sponsored rocket will be called "Windows 10" and that the headlines in the paper will make a lot of jokes about crashes and restarting, and the "cloud"
  • Is this going to be like that thing from the Jurrasic World movie where they had some kind of.... Verizon Wireless -saurus Rex or whatever?
  • Comment removed based on user account deletion

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by necro81 ( 917438 )
      In defense of NASA, this was an idea floated by a political appointee. I highly doubt this is something being pushed by the NASA rank and file. I suspect their reaction is the same as yours and mine.

      But in the meantime, NASA is still doing exploration and useful science. They launched the Parker solar probe just a few weeks ago. People are still living on the International Space Station. We have a nuclear-powered rover on Mars that was delivered by a rocket skycrane. On New Years's Day, the New Hor

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by gtall ( 79522 )

      If you mean by "they" the rank and file of NASA, they are just as appalled as you. Rather the new crew from Trump is to blame.

  • If they open up corporate naming, I suspect this will not be far behind.

  • Starting from the top -- Cony McConeFace

    I leave the remainder to Slashdotters

  • I expect we will see the Google Lincoln Memorial and the Apple Washington Monument.

  • Astronauts are more valuable members of society than people running around and kicking or throwing balls in a field.

    You want to play sports? Fine. The fact that it became what it is now is proof that a huge percentage of the human race is still stupid.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      You want to play sports? Fine. The fact that it became what it is now is proof that a huge percentage of the human race is still stupid.

      You want to read comic books? Fine. The fact that it became what it is now is proof that a huge percentage of the human race is still stupid.

      You want to watch TV? Fine. The fact that it became what it is now is proof that a huge percentage of the human race is still stupid.

      You want to vote Republican? Fine. The fact that it became what it is now is proof that a huge percent

  • A lot of kids want to be sports stars because, from a role model perspective, endorsements is one of their main avenues of awareness. I, for one, would like to see Astronauts on the cereal box instead of promotion of some random sports figure.
  • Errr... NASA is a "brand" ?
  • ...that we aren't actually a country. All we are is a container for corporations. The veneer is coming off, being discarded shamelessly. No one even pretends anymore.
  • We all know something like this would be tried and I for one would love to watch news casters try to say it with a straight face.

    • Only if you're willing to cough up millions. It's "selling the naming rights" not "vote on names."

      And for what it's worth, they already offer opportunities to vote on names.

  • So who da %(*@#/ paid for the uniforms from the original series and especially TMP? A much more sensible sponsor is responsible for TWOK, obviously.

  • C'mon, y'all know it was coming...

  • Yushityu 2007 Mimetic-Resolution-Cartridge-View-Motherboard-Easy-To-Install-Upgrade for Infernatron/InterLace TP Systems for Home, Office or Mobile [sic]

  • Before they can start plastering adverts on a rocket they need an actual rocket. What are they going to put this on? SLS? Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha! Good one.

  • I wouldn't recommend it. Too much chance of unexpected baggage becoming attached to the naming, which could hurt either NASA or the company that sold its name.

    Suppose 3 months ago, NASA had named a rocket the "Nike" rocket. It seemed perfectly safe and harmless 3 months ago. But today, NASA would be tied up in the Colin Kaepernick controversy.

    Suppose Company XYZ sold its name to a rocket, which later on blew up. Then that explosion would be known as the "Company XYZ disaster".

  • Let's get that GoFundMe started!

    Also lets get it on some super important mission. Only to see some super serious news anchor try to get though the historic writing, only to throw his papers in the air on live TV to exclaim "Fsck it I quit, this is ridiculous!". Would also make for good political speeches.

    "On this day, a day unlike any other, the intrepid Rocket McRocketFace arches onward and upward on this historic mission, indeed the whole world is looking skyward in pride of human achievement that Rocket

  • Who does NASA belong to? Some bloated corporation or the people of the USA? It is symbolic of the corporate takeover of the Federal government.

    Consider the real world possibilities. The Waste Management Uranus Probe. What about foreign powers? United States Lunar Base Putin. China doesn't have to build the Long March 12, they can just buy the naming rights to an American built missile.

    Might as well let billionaires bid for the right to have their ugly mugs on the currency. Larry Elson would pay a billion

  • Perhaps there is hope for reviving "Boaty McBoatface".

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