Make Space Great Again: Furore over Trump politicising NASA and SpaceX launch

US President Donald Trump this week released a campaign video to try and turn the successful NASA and SpaceX launch into votes for himself in this year’s presidential election.

Not everyone was happy with the video, though, and it’s now been removed from social media. Trump has endured a tough week in the office with his response to the wide-scale protests around the USA under question.

Last week, he made a point of flying out to the SpaceX launch at the Kennedy Space Station, during a national crisis. It led to many criticising him for failing to address the country.

NASA didn’t approve ‘Make Space Great Again’ ad

The “Make Space Great Again” video showed footage from the Apollo program, as well as video of the landmark SpaceX Demo-2 mission, and NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley.

The campaign video was released on Wednesday 3 June 2020 on YouTube before being taken down one day later with a note stating “removed by the uploader.“

Thankfully, a wise netizen saved the video and re-uploaded it to YouTube; it can be viewed here. Do note that the video may be pulled if reported to YouTube for violating NASA’s regulations.

Space.com reported that NASA had no idea about Trump’s campaign video before it was released on Wednesday. In addition, the NASA logo cannot be displayed without permission from the space agency.

This is most likely the reason that the video had to be removed. As it happens, NASA regulations don’t allow depiction of active astronauts or retired astronauts without their permission.

Uproar on social media

Trump’s campaign video clearly shows images of Karen Nyberg, who is astronaut Doug Hurley’s wife and also happens to be a retired astronaut herself.

“I find it disturbing that a video image of me and my son is being used in political propaganda without my knowledge or consent,” Nyberg wrote on Twitter, tagging NASA and its chief Jim Bridenstine in the post. “That is wrong.”

In addition to this, the video shows images of Hurley and Bob Behnken during the historic NASA mission which would also contravene NASA’s regulation around using the likenesses of astronauts in advertising or marketing materials.

Behnken’s wife, Megan McArthur and their son are also shown in the campaign video taken from the NASA feed when they said farewell to Behnken before the launch.

Petition against the politicisation of space

The “Make Space Great Again” video has also seen petitions pop up on change.org with members of the public opposing the politicisation of the space mission.

The petition also rightly points out that the current space program has its roots as far back as the George W. Bush administration and was funded during the Obama administration.

Despite the claims from Trump’s re-election claim that the video was made from publicly available sources, it seems likely that the video was ultimately pulled from social media due to its breaches of the NASA regulations.

NASA regulations

NASA generally allows use of its images and video but prohibits the use of its insignia and photographs of its astronauts in advertisements.

The regulations state that NASA “will not promote or endorse or appear to promote or endorse a commercial product, service or activity, and that “strict limits” are placed on the use of NASA-related imagery.

“Astronauts or employees who are currently employed by NASA cannot have their names, likenesses or other personality traits displayed in any advertisements or marketing material,” the NASA regulation states.