A Soda Ad in the Sky?
Imagine this: you’re stargazing, marveling at the vastness of space, the serenity of a full moon’s glow. Suddenly, a soda logo drifts across your field of vision, trailed by a QR code. “The final frontier racks up a sale.” This isn’t science fiction — at least not anymore.
According to Vlad Sitnikov, a Russian adman behind the company StartRocket, “Wherever there is commerce, advertising will be there.” His plan? Launch a constellation of up to 400 miniature, maneuverable “cubesats” that can project brand messages into the night sky.
Sitnikov proposes using off-the-shelf parts assembled in Malaysia. Partnering with Avant Space, which already holds a patent and has tested the concept using stratospheric balloons, he aims to raise $100 million and be operational within a year. “It’s an inevitable step,” he insists. “People get upset about advertising because it’s designed to interrupt — that’s how it gets our attention. But you can’t develop any economy without it.”
The Industry Has Already Dipped Its Toes
Sitnikov points out space ads are nothing new. In 1996, Pepsi launched a giant can replica outside Russia’s Mir space station. Red Bull sponsored Felix Baumgartner’s iconic 2012 space dive. Tesla shot a car into orbit in 2018. Even NASA has been in on it — transporting Estée Lauder skincare serum into space for a photo shoot.
So, Sitnikov asks: “Why all the snobbery about the next logical step in space advertising,” especially when other forms of space commercialization, like asteroid mining, are generating buzz?
Astronomers Push Back
John Barentine, fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society and member of the American Astronomical Society’s light pollution committee, is leading the opposition. He warns that “the light reflected off and by advertising cubesats would be hugely detrimental to astronomy.”
“You can move an observatory on Earth to places with very low light pollution,” he explains. “But you can’t do that if the light is coming from space.”
While acknowledging that “it’s just not of interest to enough people, especially against the interests of commerce,” Barentine believes wider public resistance might stop it. “They would be too intrusive,” he argues. “You can turn off a TV ad. And while people have become desensitized to billboards, I don’t think we’ll turn a blind eye to billboards in space.”
He emphasizes that space, once seen as a “global commons” and a “pristine environment,” may already be past saving. But, he adds, “that doesn’t mean we still can’t put in guardrails.”
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U.S. Law and Global Loopholes
Barentine notes that U.S. policy is already on his side. In 2000, Congress banned the launch of “obtrusive” space advertising programs from U.S. territory after a Georgia company floated the idea of a giant orbiting billboard for the 1996 Summer Olympics.
Still, the law only covers American soil. “The problem, of course, is that this does not stop other spacefaring nations from sending up such ads.” Ultimately, Barentine believes, real change will only happen after “a very conspicuous case” of space advertising: “seeing will be disbelieving.”
“For Sure There Should Be Limits”
Sitnikov says he understands the resistance. “For sure there should be limits on advertising in space,” he says. StartRocket’s constellation, he explains, would only operate at dusk and dawn — not at night — and only over major population centers. “Nobody will pay to advertise when everyone is asleep.” He even suggests the constellation could be used for public service announcements.
The Scientific Community Isn’t Convinced
Piero Benvenuti, professor emeritus of astrophysics at the University of Padua and longtime advocate for a satellite ad ban, is blunt: “Advertising can already be done and is done extensively on the ground. There’s simply no need for it in space too.”
He’s not anti-satellite. He admits that astronomers accepted some interference from initiatives like SpaceX’s Starlink due to its social utility. But “clearly allowing even more satellites into space for advertising makes no sense.”
Benvenuti raises another concern: satellites in low-Earth orbit degrade over time and must be replaced. “This, in turn, may have an as yet unknown impact on the chemical composition of the atmosphere.”
He stresses a common misconception: “People think of space as infinite, but low-Earth orbit isn’t.” He supports limiting satellite numbers, though he concedes “that raises the hard question of how that number might be distributed among nations.”
Collisions and Kessler Syndrome
Jan Siminski of the European Space Agency monitors potential satellite collisions. He warns of the risk of cascading satellite debris, known as the Kessler Syndrome — first proposed by NASA scientists in the 1970s.
“With some 500,000 bits of space junk in orbit already,” he says, “the probability of a collision increases with the number of satellites.” An advertising constellation, flying in formation, is particularly vulnerable.
“The potential for a cascade effectively poses a risk to all satellites and the systems they provide [from Earth observation to meteorology to communications]. And, long term, the effect could be that we can’t launch into space anymore.”
There’s Another Way
Chris Rose of the U.K.-based company Sent Into Space offers a less intrusive path. His company has been launching branded products into space for 15 years, filming the stunts for marketing purposes.
“Space very quickly became an advertising platform for brands whose products are not necessarily related to space but who want to see them against that amazing vista,” Rose says. Their method uses high-altitude balloons and returns payloads to Earth.
“These [launches] get hundreds of millions of views online,” Rose adds. “The allure of space to brands will wane [in time], but I think we’ll see exponential growth first.”
A Line in the Stars
Critically, Rose draws a clear line. “We go up, we don’t hang around, we come down, we leave nothing behind,” he explains. “If a client came to me and said they wanted to project [their brand] to Earth from space, I’d tell them that the idea was gross. And I’d explain why it wouldn’t work — because it’s likely that everyone would hate them for it.”