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Commercialization

CASIS Is Changing Its Name But It Missed A Few Things (update)

By Keith Cowing
NASA Watch
February 5, 2019
Filed under
https://media2.spaceref.com/news/2019/issdomain.jpg

Keith’s update: A short time after I posted this someone bought this domain. It does not seem to have been purchased by CASIS. Oops.

https://media2.spaceref.com/news/2019/issdomain.2.jpg

Keith’s 11:03 am ET note: CASIS has decided to change its name to “ISS National Laboratory.” It has filed paperwork with the state of Florida to allow it to openly use a “fictitious name” to do business (that’s what it says on the forms). Sources report that CASIS asked NASA if they could do this and NASA said no. So CASIS did it anyway. On Friday CASIS is having a public meeting. It will be interesting to see if this issue and CASIS’ interest in starting up a new commercial entity will be discussed or swept under the carpet.
“ISS National Laboratory”, as defined by the Congressional language that created it, refers to hardware in orbit owned, built and operated by the US government on board the International Space Station (ISS). It still belongs to the government. CASIS was hired by the government to run the process of finding users for ISS National Laboratory. No one gave ownership of ISS National Laboratory to CASIS. So how can CASIS claim to BE the ISS National Laboratory? This would be like a company that runs giftshops and cleans the bathrooms at a national Park deciding to adopt the name of the national park that they work for.
This name change is inherently deceptive and will inevitably be confusing. The NASA web page on ISS National Lab says “The ISS National Lab is managed by the Center for the Advancement for Science in Space under agreement with NASA.” Will this change to say that “the ISS National Laboratory manages the ISS National Laboratory”? CASIS has always be shy about using the word “NASA” in its public facing statements. Now, they don’t even want to use their own name. So, when people hear that “the ISS National Laboratory Announced …” there is going to be a logical assumption that this refers to NASA.
The International Space Station is one of the most amazing pieces of human engineering ever created. NASA gives CASIS $15 million a year – 99.8% of CASIS’ budget – to provide user access to ISS – often at a tiny fraction of what it actually costs – yet CASIS still can’t use all the crew time and other resources that NASA gives them.
A week ago I sent the a series of questions to CASIS on these topics (with a cc: to NASA). CASIS has declined to respond.
Oh yes – with this name change comes the need to protect corporate identity and branding. It would seem that CASIS has not bothered to try and trademark its new name, thus leaving the option open for others to do so. While CASIS bought a few Internet domains such as issnationallab.org they did not buy domains such as issnationallaboratory.org (check here) The domains are still for sale. So now you too can pretend to be the ISS National Laboratory online with a nice, easy-to-remember domain. Too late. Someone read NASAWatch and bough all of the issnationallaboratory.*** domains. You had your chance!

CASIS Is Changing Its Name By Pretending That Its Not
CASIS Now Has An Official Fictitious Name
Why Is CASIS Making Itself Disappear?
Is CASIS Fixing Its Management Problems?
CASIS Pays Big Bucks For Leadership With No Space Experience (Update)
Earlier CASIS posts

NASA Watch founder, Explorers Club Fellow, ex-NASA, Away Teams, Journalist, Space & Astrobiology, Lapsed climber.

4 responses to “CASIS Is Changing Its Name But It Missed A Few Things (update)”

  1. jm67 says:
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    Why is this topic worthy of so many posts?

    • kcowing says:
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      Because the editor says it is.

    • Steve Pemberton says:
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      Because the International Space Station is the most expensive object that has ever existed in history. It was built for scientific research and it has a limited number of years left to do this. An organization was hired to manage and improve the utilization of the U.S. segment. After eight years they appear to not have made any major difference, or at least not as much as was expected. They also seem to spend time and resources on marketing activities which have the appearance of benefiting themselves. Massive scrutiny of this organization or any organization which has accepted the responsibility for this unparalleled resource is very much warranted to determine if they are underperforming or not. I would ask instead why are there not a similar number of articles about this anywhere else. So far Keith seems to be the only one keeping this visible.

  2. fcrary says:
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    I could actually imagine a Rocky Mountain National Park Concession Company. So some mention of an ISS National Lab in the contractor’s name isn’t absurd. What makes it absurd is the utter lack of any words in the name to distinguish them from the Lab itself. That’s taking marketing a bit far.