The American Astronomical Society (AAS) is leading a call for a global ban on obtrusive space advertising, citing its potential to interfere with ground-based astronomy. The AAS released a statement at their 245th meeting, highlighting the growing threat of companies launching advertising payloads visible from Earth without the aid of telescopes. This is despite a decades-old federal ban in the US on granting launch licenses for such missions.
John Barentine of Dark Sky Consulting, a member of the AAS’s Committee for the Protection of Astronomy and the Space Environment (COMPASSE), expressed concern that the potential commercial value of space advertising is too great for other nations to ignore. “The lure of it is so great that I can’t imagine that no one will try,” he said. “I think the commercial value will prompt somebody to do it.”
While no imminent space advertising efforts are currently known, Barentine mentioned Avant Space, a Russian company that launched a 3U cubesat in April 2024 to test technologies for a future constellation designed to project logos using lasers. Although details are scarce, Barentine noted, “Their technology demonstration was evidently successful, as far as anybody knows.”
Another Russian company, StartRocket, previously announced plans with PepsiCo’s Russian subsidiary to use small satellites and Mylar sails to reflect sunlight and create a logo. However, PepsiCo’s U.S. headquarters later stated that after conducting an “exploratory test” using a high-altitude balloon, they were not pursuing this type of advertising.
The AAS statement calls for a global ban on obtrusive space advertising through international agreements and urges the U.S. delegation to the United Nation’s Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS) to actively promote this issue and establish it as an international norm.