Looking for creative new ways to help pay for the exploding cost of the International Space Station, now estimated at $24 billion, NASA has cooked up a public broadcasting-like scheme of corporate sponsorship.
As part of a congressionally mandated report to be delivered to
Administrator Daniel S. Goldin later this month, the space agency will propose selling the rights to display corporate names and logos during NASA media events such as press briefings given by space shuttle astronauts, according to Science & Government Report, a newsletter published by Technical Insights, a unit of John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
NASA also believes that companies will pay to advertise during construction of the station, and the agency plans to market the use of its human space flight assets, including the station, to Hollywood.
“Advertising is one of six proposed areas for commercializing the space
station,” says Peter Katz, publisher of Technical Insights. “Potential
advertisers include those pharmaceutical companies that appear eager to design drugs in a zero gravity environment. But don’t expect to see John Glenn or other astronauts wearing baseball caps bearing the sponsors’ names, because such personal endorsements are prohibited for government employees.”
A pilot advertising program is expected to be underway in about a year.
By that time, the agency will have selected an advertising agency to advise it on matters including rates, selection of advertisers and taste.
As for cashing in on the entertainment market, NASA sees movies being made
on ISS, once it is built, and the agency could begin selling video footage of space events, such as an asteroid fly-by, instead of giving it away as it now does. And the completed station could also double as a platform for commercial communications and a hotel, presumably for guests with Bill
Gates-sized wallets.
Science & Government Report is a twice-monthly independent bulletin of
science policy. It presents news and analysis of developments in Washington and the federally-funded research community, including the congressional hearings, budget wrangles, and political maneuvering that spell success or failure for major research efforts and affect billions of dollars in spending. It regularly alerts readers to research-related funding plans, policy statements, reports, and other documents for the White House, government agencies, and Congress.
