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On Wednesday night, SpaceX’s Inspiration4 mission is scheduled to launch the first all-civilian crew into Earth orbit. With the help of companies including Sam Adams and Martin Guitars, the three-day space trip aims to raise $ 200 million for the Children’s Research Hospital “St. The fact that the mission is filled with branding opportunities is not surprising, given that launching a private space is already a massive multi-channel streaming and media event.
Jared Isaacman, founder and CEO of e-commerce company Ship4Payments, is funding the widely touted trip. The crew also includes the mission pilot, Sian Proctor, a professor of geology; Hailey Arseno, assistant physician at St. Jude; and Chris Sembroski, an engineer who won his raffle ticket. None of the passengers are professional astronauts and they will rely on SpaceX’s autonomous Crew Dragon capsule to ensure that the mission runs smoothly.
If there are no delays, the Inspiration4 capsule will be launched into space by SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket sometime between 20:00 ET on Wednesday and 1:00 ET on Thursday before entering Earth orbit about 80 miles from the International Space Station (ISS). ). After about three days without gravity and great views – not to mention activities like performing a ukulele and a video call with a patient from St. Jude – the crew will return to Earth, and at the end of September Netflix will release a full-length finale of its real TV series. of five parts for the mission. (The first four episodes of the show are now available for viewing, and Netflix broadcasts the show live on its YouTube page.)
The mission also includes a colorful payload of equipment and collectibles, including goods that will be put up for sale at a charity auction once the crew returns to Earth. These items range from space-themed watches made by IWC to stuffed rocket toys based on characters from the animated series Netflix Space racers. On board Sembroski will play Martin Guitar’s ukulele for $ 2,000. The official brewer of Inspiration4, Sam Adams, has also arranged for 66 kilograms of hops to go into space and brew beer with them once the mission arrives (the beer will be available for purchase later in the autumn). Perhaps the strangest of the items is a bunch of non-exchangeable tokens stored on the iPhone, including an NFT recording of a Kings of Leon song that will become the first musical NFT ever released into space. Bidding for these items begins on Thursday, and auctions will end in November.
As long as the sale of things that were in space is not new, it will become much more common. NASA, a government agency subject to congressional oversight, has traditionally restricted the commercialization of space missions. But as the number of non-NASA space flights grows, so do opportunities for space-related goods and product positioning. Now, because commercial space companies do not necessarily operate under NASA’s strict limits, there is a race to seize new marketing opportunities in space: namely, sending products into space before selling them back to Earth.
A brief history of space goods
NASA itself doesn’t usually sell things that have been in space, but elements of NASA’s missions have found their way into the market in the past. Astronauts, meanwhile, are civil servants and are not legally allowed to make personal money from their positions until they retire from government work, limiting when they can sell personal belongings that they are allowed to bring into their missions. Other valuables that have been in space on NASA missions are usually offered to museums or rarely sold by the government.
Some of the most notable items that made the space trip and back before being sold to the public came from astronauts from the Gemini, Apollo, and Mercury programs, some of whom saved equipment from their missions. Regulations on what astronauts could protect from these initial missions amounted to verbal agreements at the time, leading to some controversy over who was entitled to the artifacts. But in 2012, President Barack Obama signed a bill confirming that these astronauts do have ownership of many of these memories. These items are now selling for huge sums: A bag from the Apollo 11 mission, which was used by Neil Armstrong to carry samples of moon dust, sold at Sotheby’s in 2017 for $ 1.8 million.
NASA also has strict rules against advertising or approving products and makes very little of branded or iconographic goods. While the space agency’s various logos have appeared on everything from Vans shoes to Forever 21 tops, the image is in the public domain, meaning it’s free to use by anyone.
“People have seen what historical aircraft are sold for and understand that there is a market for these materials and that these things are valuable and collectible,” said Cassandra Hutton, global head of science and pop culture at Sotheby’s, which works with astronauts. auctions. “The reason they were initially managed was that there was no commercial purpose behind it. Their value is truly historical. “
NASA has begun to welcome some commercial deals in recent years. In 2019, the space agency officially announced that it will allow 90 hours of crew per year for astronauts to carry out marketing activities commissioned by private companies. For example, Estée Lauder last year paid astronauts to take pictures of the ISS’s zero-gravity face serum. The ISS National Laboratory is also partnering with Adidas to test its soccer ball at the station, although it is unclear how useful it is to test a soccer ball in space.
All this means that product positioning and promotional stunts in space have historically occurred without the US space administration. However, they had help from Roscosmos, the Russian equivalent of NASA. Over the past few decades, the Russian space agency has helped promote Pizza Hut’s milk, ramen, Pepsi and even personal pizzas. And if it’s Stanley Kubrick 2001: Space Odyssey is some indication of what lies ahead – the film presents a Hilton hotel on the moon – the trend for private companies to use space as a marketing opportunity will only grow.
“This space exploration is not just about exploring scientific or technical frontiers,” said Scott Pace, director of the George Washington University Space Policy Institute. “He’s also researching, do you know where the economy can go?” Where to expand economic activities beyond Earth? “
Commercial space travel means that space facilities will become more common
Three private space companies have already begun the process of launching very wealthy civilians into space: Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin, Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic, and now Elon Musk’s SpaceX. All three companies have not only sold their own goods, but have also cleared the way for space-related branding and marketing opportunities.
Virgin Galactic, for example, has partnered with Under Armor to sell branded sportswear, including the “space attire” that Virgin Galactic customers wear during their flights and then return home. The space travel company is also working with Land Rover to create the Astronaut Edition Range Rover, which is only available to people who have purchased Virgin Galactic flight tickets. The SUV includes a puddle light in the shape of a spaceship, as well as cup holders made from a piece of landing slide from one of Virgin Galactic’s first flights.
Similarly, Blue Origin used the launch of its first crew mission, which included Bezos himself, to debut Rivian’s first electric vehicle (one of the carmaker’s biggest investors was Amazon, where Bezos worked).
However, some of these types of marketing opportunities are less common. After Bezos threw the Skittles through the space capsule on his Blue Origin flight in July, Skittles was quick to announce the release of a time-limited candy package called the Zero-G Skittles. The candy maker told Recode that the move was not coordinated in advance.
Although the trend in space branding and marketing campaigns seems to demonstrate the worst qualities of American capitalism, some argue that there is a greater good in all of this. Most people can’t afford a space ticket because the cost of space tourism missions is still in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. But the goods and collectibles from these trade missions mean that private space companies can still sell consumers the feeling that they are at least part of that moment in space history for much less money.
“By managing our brands, we can fly with them,” Robert Pearlman, a space historian who runs the colleSpace space collection website, told Recode. “We will see a little more of ourselves in how space flight develops, and we say, ‘Yes, I may not be able to afford space flight, but I eat skittles.’ “
Sponsored content by celebrities in space may not be far off either. Many celebrities have already booked tickets for Virgin Galactic, and Virgin Galactic already has plans to attract a TikTok researcher on one of its upcoming flights. Meanwhile, private space flight company Axiom Space, which has contracted several SpaceX flights, is offering a space-themed “content innovation platform” to help companies make product demonstrations and create space ads. More space reality television is also under development, including competitions aimed at sending civilians into space. Discovery Channel is developing one called Who wants to be an astronaut, and earlier this year NASA signed up for a show called Space hero this will send a happy ISS racer.
While commercial space travel is feeling exciting right now, the novelty of billionaires and ordinary people traveling in space for fun may not last forever. But aware of the historical nature of its flight, the Inspiration4 mission tries to take advantage of the enthusiasm – for charity – that comes with such an event. We’ll see how many people will be willing to pay for part of this story when the mission lands.
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