US to ban space advertising

by brian_turner

The US Federal Aviation Administration on Thursday published a proposed regulation in the Federal Register that would ban US companies from launching billboards into space for advertising purposes.

The agency acted after a company, which was not identified, proposed a plan that would launch such billboards into orbit.

According to the FAA, these billboards would look as large as the moon when seen from earth and would be visible to millions of people all over the world.

Included in the information published by the FAA in the Federal Register was the contention that such billboards could eliminate darkness from the night sky, which would make the work of astronomers impossible

FAA is basing the proposed regulation on an act of Congress that prohibits “obtrusive” space advertising.

Title 49 of the United States Code defines obtrusive space advertising 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.”

This is the definition that the proposed regulation will adopt. The public has until July 18 to comment on the proposed regulation.

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