WASHINGTON — Astronomers are calling on nations to ban advertising in space that can be seen from the ground, calling it the latest threat to the dark and quiet sky.
At a briefing during the 245th Meeting of the American Astronomical Society earlier this month, the organization rolled out a statement calling for bans on “obtrusive space advertising” because of the interference it could cause for groundbased astronomy.
Obtrusive space advertising is defined in U.S. federal law as “advertising in outer space that is capable of being recognized by a human being on the surface of the Earth without the aid of a telescope or other technological device.” Such advertising is banned in federal law through prohibitions on granting launch licenses for missions carrying payloads to carry out space advertising.
If I see your shit advertised in space I will never buy your product again.
Hell yeah.
This is exactly like skywriting.
Once it got popular it got really popular for advertising, then people got mad and it was an affront to God and legislators were forced to shut it down.
But also, after the novelty it stopped being effective and it just made people angry.
Now, arguably 2026’s companies care less about making people mad than any time since like the coal wars. But I still think you can’t keep posting people off forever and expect good brand outcomes. And if you can, you don’t need ads do you?
the coal wars
As an aside, it just made me a little happy to know that there’s at least one other person out in the world that’s read a history book at some point.
It doesn’t but I mean in a corporations not feeding any consequence way.
Obviously ads are not like company towns or the coal union suppression.
But I do think corporations were only more hostile to people in that era. And modern companies have zero fear of repercussions, because they face none.
Yeah, well.
Unfortunately it’s a deliberately untaught period in our history, so the vast majority of Americans have never heard of it and probably can’t conceive of literally going to war against corporations, so it makes me happy whenever I come across someone who’s aware of it.
An older story, I know, but today was the first I heard of space-based advertising, and it made my blood boil a little.
To be clear, the infuriating part is people trying to put ads in the sky, not the astronomers fighting back, who are in fact awesome.
I don’t think it goes far enough. Satellites should not be allowed to arrange or emit for any aesthetics reason, advertising or not. They should be required to do everything they can to go unseen.
And the near-side of the moon should be preserved with bans on commercial activity and construction projects.
Or maybe just any that can be seen from earth, even with a telescope. If you can dig a tunnel and build an underground complex without the ports and vents being visible, then I guess that can be allowed. But that should be a negotiating chip, not a part of the first proposal.
It’s about time.
Although honestly, with this government, all this might do is give them ideas…
They should add to it though. No construction projects or any commercial activity on the near-side of the moon.
If they block my stars I will go full terrorist.
They bomb kids daily and you’re complacent, you’re telling me if they added more ads you’re gonna finally revolt?
I don’t buy it.
If you had any idea how politically active I am you wouldn’t say something so idiotic. But there you go.
I think you both make good points
Reality is simple: those kids are bombed invisibly, nobody sees them. It happens, but many people don’t pick up on it because suppression of news and propaganda
Those commercials you see 24/7 and there is no opt out, no escaping it, and it would destroy the beauty of the world
I’m not trying to say that bombed kids don’t matter, or are somehow less important, of course, but I do think that this is the reality of the situation will be simply that visibility will make all the difference
Excerpt from “Red Dwarf: Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers”: For anyone living on Earth the result would be mindfizzlingly spectacular. One hundred and twenty-eight stars would appear to go supernova simultaneously, burning with such ferocity they would be visible even in daylight.
And the hundred and twenty-eight supernovae would spell out a message.
And this would be the message:
‘COKE ADDS LIFE!’
If we ban space advertising, then only criminals will be able to advertise in space.
What we need to fight bad advertisers in space is good advertisers in space.
This could be solved if we only allowed astronauts to conceal-carry ad-copy.
(I like to use gun arguments out of context, because it emphasizes how dumb they are.)
Conservatives watch too many westerns, where the good guy defeats the bad guy in a standoff.
This is completely unrealistic though, because a “bad guy with a gun” would just show up and start shooting before anyone even knows he has a gun. And by the time the good guy gets there, dozens of people would already be dead.
Also “good guy with a gun” reeks of vigilantism and copaganda. “Oh, thank god the sheriff is here to save the day! Oh… oh wait he’s just gonna abuse the laborers and move on, without bothering the evil mining baron who works them to death with impunity? OH GOD THEY’RE SHAKING HANDS! OH. OH NO. THE HUMANITY!!!”
Not to mention the casual racism that isn’t even subtle. “Those injuns live right over on the other side of that ridge! We gotta put a posse together to go kill their men and enslave their women and children.”
“Ahh, so these are the bad guys. When are the heroes going to show up to stop them?” … “Ohh noo, these are the “heroes”… 😫”
BE SURE TO DRINK YOUR OVALTINE
Coke adds life…
I think i might kill someone if i see an ad in the night sky
The day the night sky fills with billboards is the day I switch from “I really hope we as a species can get better” to “I really hope we as a species become extinct soon.”
Its already at a point where I can’t take a long exposure without a dozen spacex satellites and other junk zooming through my frame. Light pollution is already at a tipping point where no stars are visible in or around large cities.
Support your local amateur astronomer club. Support the dark skies association.
Anyone read Arthur C. Clarke’s short story “Watch This Space” where a giant Coke logo is lit up on the moon? It was meant to be funny, not instructional. Sigh. “Torment Nexus” and all that, I suppose.
~~astronomers ~~ every human being
FTFY
Hey all, after seeing the interest in this thread, I decided to make ads in space the topic of my YT video for the week.
If you enjoy the video, please let me know what you think.
