It made the news for about one 24 hour cycle last month, but there were several articles published talking about NASA looking into the use of product advertisement to offset the costs of specific programs.
NASA could sell advertising space on rockets
NASA is not making any changes right now and has no plans to advertise products at this time. This may change in the future, or it may not change. It's an interesting question to look into. On one hand, advertisements can certainly bring in money. Every sports stadium in the country uses advertising to increase revenues. On the other hand, advertising can case potential problems, particularly if the company being advertised takes a controversial stance.
My personal opinion is NASA should stick to current protocol and stay away from advertising. Although advertising brings in money, it won't bring in much money compared to typical US funding to various agencies. Without knowing the numbers, it's hard to say for sure, but I suspect advertising dollars are a drop in the bucket compared to total NASA funding. The small increase in revenue is not worth the potential headache, in my opinion.
I will say, however, that anyone who says advertising is definitely a positive with no negatives and anyone who says advertising is definitely a negative with no positives, is not being honest about looking at the issue from all angles. This is true for most issues. There is almost never a definite right or wrong answer. It's important that critical thinking be applied to any problem and unfortunately in this country at this time critical thinking is lacking.
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