Advertising proposed to support US space programs

By Jim Wolf

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colorado, April 10 (Reuters) - Corporate advertising could rise to the heavens under a proposal unveiled here on Tuesday to bolster cash-strapped U.S. space programs.

The goal would be to gather as much as $100 million as prize money to stimulate innovative ideas, said Rep. Ken Calvert of California, the top Republican on the House of Representatives' subcommittee on space and aviation.

"By no means do I envision bumper stickers on the Mars Rover or a blinking sign on the International Space Station," he said in a kick-off address to the National Space Symposium, an annual space industry conference.

But Congress should weigh a system for "long-term, dedicated and tasteful sponsorships" that could raise cash to reward technological breakthroughs outside the regular congressional budgeting process, he said.

Debate over U.S. spending in space has grown since Jan. 11, when China used a ground-based missile against one of its aging weather satellites, showing an ability to destroy space-based gear in low-earth orbit.

The Chinese antisatellite test "made clear that space is not a sanctuary," U.S. Air Force Under Secretary Ronald Sega, the Pentagon's executive agent for space, told reporters at a briefing here.

He said he was open to exploring the possibility of prize money to jump-start space-related innovations, just as the Pentagon has sponsored annual "Grand Challenge" robot races in recent years.

Robert Stevens, chairman and chief executive of Lockheed Martin Corp. (LMT.N), the Pentagon's biggest supplier, told the session the United States cannot preserve space leadership without sustained investment.

STAKES ARE HIGH

At $17.3 billion, NASA's proposed budget for fiscal 2008 is "significantly less than annual sales of candy and gum," Stevens said. "You could double NASA's budget, and it would still only cost each American about 32 cents a day."

The United States relies on satellites for advanced military and intelligence tasks as well as for everything from automatic teller machines to high-speed communications and precision navigation for drivers, boaters and hikers.

Spending on the National Aeronautic and Space Administration, which runs human spaceflight initiatives, accounts for less than half of U.S. spending on space programs.

"The stakes remain great ... and the world is still an unpredictable place, whether we're talking about efforts to jam or disable or interrupt our current systems or get new missiles into space or kill a satellite," Stevens said.

Last year, NASA was funded at about $500 million less than requested by President Bush and at about $1.6 billion less than Congress authorized in the budgeting process, Calvert said in recommending the turn to advertising.