Is Planetary Society Giving OSIRIS-REx Naming Rights To Donors?

Keith's note: According to this press release from Deals Secure Group Holding Company GP, Elite Capital & Co. Limited, and Dr. Faisal Khazaal, LLD. Law Group, LP: "Dr. Khazaal was one of those who participated in the funding of the spacecraft LightSail. Being recognized for his participation he was granted ownership of a square centimeter of this spacecraft as a symbolic property for his belief in the importance of space science."

According to the Planetary Society "We also collected 440,000 names from well-wishers that wanted to symbolically join the seven-year mission. One copy of those names is stored aboard the spacecraft's sample return capsule, and will plunge back to Earth in 2023. Another copy, aboard OSIRIS-REx itself, will slip into a permanent heliocentric orbit."

Putting people's names on a small data storage device in a spacecraft is a long-standing NASA tradition. But, since when does the Planetary Society get to give someone "ownership" of a piece of an active NASA spacecraft - symbolic or otherwise? And why is this being done in exchange for someone funding a non-NASA project like LightSail? The OSIRIS-REx spacecraft belongs to the taxpayers who paid for it - not donors to a non-profit organization. Usually when a press release about a NASA mission is issued, NASA has to approve it. That is apparently not what happened here. I have asked NASA PAO for clarification.

from NASA Watch http://ift.tt/2cul9jL
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