The ads could bring in more than $2 million a year in revenue, according to a group of politicians backing the proposal
FILE PHOTO: The launch of the Soyuz MS-18 rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome on April 9, 2021 in Baikonur, Kazakhstan © Getty Images / Bill Ingalls/NASA
Selling adverts on the sides of rockets could be worth 200 million rubles ($2.1 million) to the Russian space agency, a group of senators and State Duma deputies have claimed.
The politicians have introduced legislation that would permit Roscosmos to place advertisements on space rockets, arguing that this could become an important source of funding for the agency.
Advertising campaigns linked to existing space programs would “help popularize space activities, attract young personnel to the space industry, and generate revenues that will be earmarked for the development of innovative space programs and projects,” the legislation says.
According to the draft law introduced in the State Duma on Monday, the placement of outdoor advertising on space infrastructure objects could become a source of additional income for the Russian federal budget and the Roscosmos state corporation. Revenue from these activities would be shared equally under the proposal.
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On Thursday, Sergei Volkov, head of the Department for Coordination and Management of Research and Development of Launch Vehicles at Roscosmos’ Progress Rocket and Space Center (RSC), told reporters about the ongoing work on obtaining rights to sign contracts for advertising on rockets. There are agreed zones on the spacecraft that can be allocated for commercial purposes, TASS reported, citing Volkov.
Advertising on space vehicles has been permitted once in the past, when a Soyuz rocket was launched from the Baikonur cosmodrome bearing the logo of Sberbank. The financial institution’s CEO, Herman Gref, had asked the former head of Roscosmos, Dmitry Rogozin, to allow this to mark the bank’s 180th anniversary.
