NASA Flirts With Selling Out

NASA is nearly synonymous with science, discovery, and exploration. The agency has managed to stay out of nearly every political storm and cultural controversy, and it’s done so by remaining aggressively neutral and focusing on the science. But all of that might be changing thanks to a new push from some members of NASA’s advisory council.

On Friday, an advisory subcommittee voted to allow NASA to venture into the nascent space tourism industry by selling seats on its rockets. This is a major reversal of NASA’s typical methods, where the agency almost exclusively flies professional astronauts with years of training and experience. NASA has only put ordinary citizens on spacecraft in a handful of unique circumstances, and at least one of those ended disastrously.

Michael Gold of Maxar Technologies led the subcommittee vote to affect this change, and now the proposal will be voted on by the entire advisory council. If it passes, we could start seeing tourists boarding NASA rockets. Of course, NASA still needs an actual rocket to put people on, which means we won’t be getting NASA tourism trips until the upcoming SLS rocket is finished, whenever that happens to be.

According to the Washington Post, this appears to be a part of a broader trend within NASA to work more closely with commercial partners. The agency is also considering proposals to allow corporations to use its logo, to let astronauts star in commercials and advertisements, to allow NASA to endorse products and services, and even to let the agency sell off the naming rights to its rockets. In other words, NASA is flirting with selling out.

“NASA has the best brand in the world, and it is important for us to make sure that we’re using it in a way that helps people perceive the United States of America in a different way all around the world,” said NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine to the Post.

There’s no question that NASA needs the money. Funding for the space agency has been steadily falling since the 60s, and extra cash from corporate partnerships will help NASA launch more rockets, more satellites, and more spacecraft to explore our planet and our solar system. But if NASA starts selling out to the highest bidder, that could compromise the strength of the “best brand in the world.”

If this change does happen, we all just have to hope that the NASA brand is strong enough to survive.

Source: Washington Post

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