NewSpace: An Era of Entrepreneurial Branding

Abstract

With the rise in space entrepreneurial companies like SpaceX and Blue Origin, the modern day space sector paradigm appears to be much different that of a NASA-led past. In the mid-90s with the rise of frustration over NASA’s perceived inability to return to the Moon or pursue a Mars mission, a number of space frontier advocates decided to take the ambition into their hands under a so-called “alt.space” turned “NewSpace” movement, which positioned NASA and its aerospace partners as slow-moving and uninspiring “OldSpace.” This thesis unpacks the rhetorical origins of this terminology and the actionable differences between the two camps, ultimately to find that NewSpace is a continuation of the traditional public-private partnership framework that NASA and the U.S. Government has pursued since before the days of Apollo. Despite this reality, so-called NewSpace companies are certainly taking over part of the messaging around how society ought to be expanding into the space frontier away from a government agency. In observing how NewSpace companies manage to rhetorically, but not effectively, brand themselves as different this research posits a question of whether there are serious implications to the intrinsic individualistic and ultimately profit-seeking motives of space entrepreneurs influencing the public’s perception of what ought to be happening in space in the place of a cautious government agency intended to serve public welfare.