This Space Available
Some big-time rocket boosters have an advertising idea that really is going to be out of this world.
The three major commercial backers of a NASA-supported rocket program are selling ad space on the shell of a 52-foot Conestoga 1620 rocket that is to be launched this spring from a site in Wallops Island, Va. The price: $500,000.
Mike Lawson, head of the Georgia consulting firm Space Marketing, which was hired to sell the space, said more than 60 companies and advertising agencies have called.
He hopes to have a buyer signed by mid-February.
Why would anyone be interested in plastering an ad on something that will be shot into space where no one will see it?
Lawson said part of the reason is novelty: No other commercial rocket has carried an ad, and it may generate news coverage.
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