Marketing Space, Part 1: How NASA and the US Government Sold the Moon Mission

What is now referred to as the “space race” between the United States and the Soviet Union during the Cold War is remembered for many things, including the successful – and sometimes dramatic –  attempts to land on the Moon. NASA and the U.S. government did everything they could to justify their enormous expenditures on the space race: at their peak, American space budgets reached 4% of GDP, an extraordinary amount by the standards of that time. To win the hearts of ordinary Americans and solidify public support for conquering the Moon, they embarked on an unprecedented PR campaign.

Space Euphoria: The Backstory

The idea of space travel began taking root several decades before the Apollo program. In 1865 Jules Verne wrote the book “From the Earth to the Moon in 97 Hours, 20 Minutes,” the same book that Neil Armstrong mentioned in his televised address from Apollo 11:

“A hundred years ago, Jules Verne wrote a book about a voyage to the Moon. His spaceship, Columbia, took off from Florida and landed in the Pacific Ocean after completing a trip to the Moon. It seems appropriate to us to share with you some of the reflections of the crew as the modern-day Columbia completes its rendezvous with the planet Earth and the same Pacific Ocean tomorrow.”

To strengthen the public’s belief that space travel was indeed possible, the U.S. government actively engaged the media. One notable collaboration was between Walt Disney and Wernher von Braun, the “father” of the American space program. Their work resulted in the production of three films about space exploration in the 1950s.

However, American interest in the space program would not have grown as dramatically as it did were it not for a pivotal event on October 4, 1957, when the Soviet Union successfully launched the first artificial Earth satellite, Sputnik-1. Americans were shocked by the news that, suddenly, they were falling behind in the technological race with the USSR. The launch of Sputnik-1 was a major demonstration of Cold War military superiority, and on July 29, 1958, President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed a law establishing the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Almost immediately, NASA and the U.S. government began promoting the idea of space dominance, laying the ideological and technological groundwork for the Americans to venture into space, the eventual goal being to land on the Moon.

The origins of American “space euphoria” are described in the book “Marketing the Moon: The Selling of the Apollo Lunar Program,” by David Meerman Scott and Richard Jurek. According to Scott and Jurek, Apollo was a wildly successful marketing strategy that captured public attention and stimulated interest in space exploration. We will refer to materials from this book later in this article.

From Mercury and Gemini to the Apollo Missions

1958 made history not just with the creation of NASA, but also with the launch of Explorer I, the first American Earth satellite. In the same year, the U.S. launched its first manned space program, Mercury, which lasted until 1963, when the program’s sixth and final manned flight was completed.

The USSR, however, quickly recovered the initiative: in 1959, it successfully delivered the first probe to the Moon as part of the “Luna-2” mission. Two years later, on April 12, 1961, Yuri Gagarin made his historic flight, becoming the first person to orbit the Earth. On May 5 of that same year, Alan Shepard also went to space, the first American to do so.

The U.S. and the USSR were thus engaged in a complex game, making one move after another, each in turn gaining an advantage, if only temporarily. But on September 12, 1961, President John F. Kennedy gave a speech that marked the beginning of one of the most ambitious and daring projects in human history, and one that received unprecedented PR support from the government:

“We choose to go to the Moon… We choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard.”

John Kennedy

With these words, Kennedy challenged both NASA and the whole country to put a man “on the Moon and safely returned to Earth” by the end of the 1960s. At that time the U.S. had neither the knowledge nor the technology to accomplish such a feat, but Kennedy’s speech became a catalyst for the rapid development of the American space program.

To further develop and adapt the technology and experience gleaned from the Mercury program’s single-seat flights for the Apollo missions, NASA launched the Gemini program, dubbed the “bridge to the Moon.” It was designed to test equipment performance in low Earth orbit and to prepare astronauts for future missions.

In 1962, NASA secured record funding for the Apollo program, with its budget growing from $1 billion in 1961 to $5 billion in 1965. Much of this was spent on developing the Saturn rockets and the Apollo capsule, as well as constructing launch facilities and training centers. Such huge budgets paid off in 1969 when, on July 20, Apollo 11 successfully delivered Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins, and Buzz Aldrin to the Moon.

More than 60 years have passed and humanity has yet to replicate the success of the Apollo missions. Since 1970, the year after the Moon landing, NASA’s budgets began to experience cuts. The Apollo program came to an end in 1972, and its last three planned missions were canceled. But during the Apollo program’s heyday, $257 billion (adjusted for 2020 dollars) was spent, an incredible amount by the standards of the 1960s. Indeed, over the life of the program over 400,000 specialists were required to land a total of 12 astronauts on the Moon!

How the U.S. Government and NASA Promoted the Idea of Space on the National Stage

Americans were mixed in their attitudes toward space exploration. Although NASA and other ambitious government projects created tens of thousands of new jobs, ordinary citizens, as well as some politicians, opposed growing expenditures on space and advocated for more attention on domestic issues. A wave of discontent swept through American society after the USSR launched Sputnik-1 into orbit, but even after several successful American space missions, skepticism remained: “The role of man in space still appears uncertain,” wrote The New Republic in March 1968, while calling for cuts to the Apollo mission’s budget.

In this environment, NASA made substantial efforts to create a positive image for itself and sway public opinion. One important line of argument that the agency turned to was an economic justification for its activities.

“Our first general conclusion is that the potential economic benefits to our society from space systems are enormous. They may amount to billions of dollars per year to many diverse elements of our industry and commerce and thus to the public.”

National Academy of Sciences in its report

“Our surveys indicate that gains up to $83 billion a year can soon be available to humanity through knowledge spawned from space research.”

Dr. Wernher von Braun in “Technology Week”

Such statements were not enough, however, and the dry language of numbers and budgets was not always well received by ordinary Americans. Therefore, the U.S. government, in collaboration with NASA, resorted to other methods of influencing public opinion.

The U.S. government and NASA were eager to “profit” from the Moon, and not only in a monetary sense. NASA is, first and foremost, a civilian agency that was created to promote the idea of American space superiority over the Soviet Union. From the very beginning, NASA hired not only talented engineers but also public relations specialists whose job it was to meticulously cover the achievements of the American space industry. To facilitate this, NASA held technical briefings before missions and even allowed media representatives access to laboratories, encouraging astronauts to share their personal stories on television and in newspapers.

NASA’s high-level PR campaign worked brilliantly as long as the agency’s message and the national mood were closely aligned

from Marketing the Moon

The Apollo program, launched in 1961, inspired many American brands to incorporate “space” themes into their marketing strategies. But the success of the Apollo 11 mission turned 1969 into a year of “lunar madness.” In the U.S. and around the world people became obsessed with everything space-related. Naturally, marketers rushed to take advantage of the craze: by the end of 1969, it was hard to find an advertisement that did not mention NASA, Apollo 11, or the Moon. NASA eagerly facilitated this frenzy and freely provided images for advertising, never objecting to the use of the agency’s name or branding in the promotion of products.

The press kit dedicated to Apollo 11 alone contained over 250 pages. The document included a folder of print-ready photographs, detailed materials about the mission itself, and information about more than a hundred manufacturers directly involved in the landing of the first human on the Moon. The press kit was creatively designed for its time, attracting attention from journalists and, of course, stimulating multiple mentions in the media.

NASA and Television Advertising

The probability of the Apollo 11 mission being completed successfully was quite high, so NASA’s PR department insisted on conducting live broadcasts from the outset. This ambitious plan was made possible by Westinghouse and RCA, which provided television cameras (black and white and color, respectively) for video transmissions from the Moon. In addition to showcasing NASA’s triumph, there was another goal: to provide substantial evidence that Americans had indeed been to the Moon. The “live” video with the astronauts was quite contrasted and did not capture every detail, but it managed to accomplish this task nonetheless.

To avoid relying solely on chance, the U.S. government had begun to prepare well in advance for conducting television broadcasts on this scale. In 1962, the first transatlantic live broadcast using a satellite was organized, showcasing images of the Statue of Liberty, President John F. Kennedy, and a baseball game. The second broadcast of similar magnitude was viewed by over 350 million people, during which The Beatles performed their hit “All You Need Is Love” live from a studio in London.

Original footage of the Apollo 11 mission, aired in July 1969:

Unique video content from NASA played a crucial role in educating the American public, which, after all, was funding the space program. NASA marketing proved to be an excellent investment in American soft power: 650 million people watched the live broadcast of American astronauts landing on the Moon, or one-fifth of the Earth’s population. This record was only surpassed in 1981 with the live airing of the wedding of Diana Spencer and Prince Charles.

The Apollo 11 mission was covered by all of the major American networks, including CBS, NBC, and ABC. Americans who did not have televisions at home gathered in bars or near screens installed in city squares and in department stores. During their coverage of the moon landing, networks included other kinds of space-related content to keep viewers’ attention. For example, on ABC the science fiction writer Isaac Asimov spoke with Rod Serling, creator of the television series “The Twilight Zone” and the famous jazz musician Duke Ellington performed a live broadcast of the song “Moon Maiden.”

Many television networks spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on large-scale models of Apollo command modules and rockets. During broadcasts, they showed mission simulations, which were interspersed with real footage. This fact was cleverly referenced by the creators of the film Fly Me to the Moon (2024), starring Scarlett Johansson and Channing Tatum.

In Europe, coverage of the American Moon landing was handled primarily by the BBC. Five days before the launch of Apollo 11, David Bowie released the single “Space Oddity,” with which the BBC accompanied their live broadcast from the Moon. The timing was no coincidence: Bowie’s record label also wanted to capitalize on the excitement surrounding the lunar mission.

Images of Astronauts in 1960s Advertising

NASA and the U.S. government spent years turning astronauts into heroes. Collaboration with Life magazine was just a small part of a broader effort aimed at shaping public opinion. These efforts were successful: Americans began to emotionally connect with the crew members who ventured into space. Magazine covers featuring headlines like “Making of a Brave Man,” along with inspiring stories of both the astronauts and their wives, contributed to this sentiment.

Stories about American astronauts were published in Life from 1959 until 1963. One issue featured an 18-page color spread devoted exclusively to astronaut training. In other issues, they could be seen with their families, dining in their living rooms, camping, or in other everyday situations. This was also part of NASA’s plan: to create heroes while maintaining a connection with ordinary Americans by portraying astronauts as “regular guys.”

But let’s return to the Apollo 11 mission, which coincided with the peak of NASA’s efforts to shape the positive image of astronauts. “Ordinary Supermen” is how newspapers and magazines referred to the new heroes, following NASA’s lead in promoting “astronaut-celebrities.” Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin quickly became symbols of courage and scientific progress in the U.S. and their images were used in advertising to promote everything from pens to expensive cars. No one was bothered that children’s products also used photos of space and references to astronauts to market new toys and educational materials.

Through commercial brands, the U.S. government and NASA inspired younger generations to study science and space technologies. But there were other goals behind this massive PR campaign as well. After returning to Earth and completing a brief quarantine, the Apollo 11 astronauts embarked on a world tour, visiting 20 countries in 38 days. The U.S. President called it one of the most successful goodwill trips in the country’s history.

The scale of the world tour was impressive: according to estimates, more than 100 million people saw the astronauts in person, and another 25,000 shook their hands. The tour had several goals, but the main one was to promote the idea that the U.S. was doing something truly important and that the Moon landing was carried out for the benefit of all humanity. At a time when its involvement in the Vietnam War was sparking public discontent and protests in the U.S., the conquest of space became a symbol of unity and a source of national pride.

Marketing Ideas: How Space Gave Us Good Habits and Made Computers Small

The astronauts took flags from over 130 countries on Apollo 11, including the flag of the Soviet Union. This gesture was meant to symbolize international cooperation in space exploration, even amidst the Cold War. Although the Soviet Union responded rather dryly to the Americans’ success, the message from the U.S. was clear to other countries.

However, not all of the Apollo program’s outcomes were pre-planned. Just as how many inventions were created by accident (think of penicillin or sticky notes), NASA unintentionally popularized certain products and ideas that are commonplace today.

The Moon landing, for example, helped make our food safer. In the 1960s, scientists had to test astronaut food hundreds of times to detect deviations and prevent contamination. The food system developed for the Apollo astronauts became the foundation for the global HACCP standard, which is still mandatory for the food industry in some countries.

Food in outer space had to be not only safe but also tasty, and many dishes are only enjoyable when served warm. Since installing an oven in lunar modules was impossible due to the risk of fire, NASA sought other ways to heat food. The agency turned to Litton Industries, a company that at the time was producing enormous microwave ovens, and asked them to make their devices smaller. Without Apollo, we might never have gotten microwaves compact enough to fit into a regular kitchen.

This is not the only example of technology miniaturization influenced by space exploration, however. “Apollo marked the moment when people stopped talking about how big their computers were and started boasting about how small they were,” noted David Mindell, a professor at MIT and author of a book on the Apollo Guidance Computer. That computer was the size of a suitcase, with a small display and input panel. Most importantly, it was able to perform the calculations that allowed astronauts to travel about 380,000 km to the Moon and land precisely at the designated spot. It turned out that performing such calculations didn’t require room-sized mainframes. Decades later, this led to the development of personal computers and smartphones.

Achieving a perfect result is impossible without multiple repetitions and failures, and space exploration also contributed to the development of a culture of learning from mistakes. Since a spacecraft cannot be fully tested under normal conditions, NASA did everything possible to anticipate potential problems while on Earth by following the rule: there are no random anomalies. Quite by accident, the designers of the lunar modules discovered that Corning’s super-strong glass could, in fact, break. This failure, which fortunately occurred in a lab, was an important lesson.

On Christmas Eve, 1968, the Apollo 8 crew captured a breathtaking sight during their orbit of the Moon: the illuminated Earth rising above the barren lunar horizon. The photograph, known as “Earthrise,” is one of the most iconic and recognizable images of all time. It is believed that this image sparked the global environmental movement and led to the establishment of Earth Day in 1970.

NASA’s Marketing Efforts Weren’t Enough, According to Critics 

Could more effort have been made to promote the lunar space program on a national level? The authors of Marketing the Moon think so. They highlight NASA’s and the U.S. government’s exceptional involvement in the coverage of the Apollo program but criticize them for failing to develop and implement a long-term marketing strategy. Absent such a strategy, it became impossible to sustain the public’s interest, especially after the novelty of the first Moon landings wore off. Scott and Jurek point out that the success of such projects requires strong public support, but NASA did not fully think through its media strategy and failed to centrally manage the coverage of the missions. Instead, relationships with journalists and the media evolved according to the choices made by individual staff members involved in PR activities.

NASA’s misjudgment of public opinion is confirmed by public opinion polls from the 1960s. Roger Launius, for example, claims that throughout the decade, 45-60% of Americans were not fully committed to the space program. Meanwhile, many polls conducted at the time turned out to be unreliable and distorted actual public sentiment. As a result, NASA’s PR campaign had less of an impact on public opinion than many believed. Nevertheless, the program continued largely due to political considerations and ultimately–and undeniably–influenced many aspects of American life.

From innovative materials and electronics to ready-made meals and microwave ovens to prepare them, Apollo pushed the technology of the time to its limits. Through enormous efforts and vast budgets, NASA and the U.S. government made the space program one of the nation’s top priorities. These multibillion-dollar investments were not in vain and led to significant economic benefits, not only in the U.S. but also abroad: over 94% of those who worked on the Apollo program were contractors. Thus, while the large-scale PR campaign was highly ideological and enjoyed mixed public support, it still had a substantial impact on the American economy.

Stay tuned for the next part of our series on space marketing, where we will explore how brands capitalized on the lunar euphoria to promote their products.