NASA has an unprecedented idea for increasing the funding, it seems. According to the latest reports, NASA is exploring possibilities in the area of placing advertisements on spacecraft, rockets and other places as the part of the branding efforts. According to a post by Washington Post, John Bridenstine has announced that a committee has been set up for exploring the possibilities in placing corporate billboards around rockets as well as other ways of brand endorsements. If approved and taken forward, this would be something history for an agency like the NASA. It seems that Bridenstine wants to make astronauts an integral part of American culture.
In a NASA Advisory Council Meeting that was conducted on August 29, John Bridenstine added that he finds the idea of selling rights of rockets and spacecraft to be quite effective. This would help the national agency to find some extra funds. It should be noted that the funds for NASA had been declining for the past period of time. Bridenstine was actually requesting advice on the same since he believes that advertising on rockets has a huge potential for the corporate world. The director also added that he is interested in the idea of the endorsement campaigns by astronauts.
Of course, the decision to cut down funding to NASA has been happening for some time. There is also an initiative going onto getting the ISS operations done by private entities instead of the government doing it. That having said, confirmations regarding these areas have not been made so far. It is also worth noting that John Bridenstine is taking the idea very long-term. He wants the astronauts and NASA to become cultural icons of America, which, he believes, would be possible via corporate deals. He even talked about the possibility of an astronauts becoming an endorser for a future cereal box!
