It was once the final frontier, mysterious and unknown. Now space could become yet another domain in the battle between corporates for brand recognition.

曾经的外太空是神秘而未知的领域。现在，外太空将成为另外一个被企业争夺品牌市场的领域。

frontier：边界

corporates：企业

Jim Bridenstine, Nasa's top official, has revealed that the body is considering letting companies buy the naming rights to its rockets and spaceships.He has also suggested that Nasa astronauts - officially government employees - may be allowed to appear on the side of cereal boxes.

美国国家航空航天局（Nasa）高级官员Jim Bridenstine透露，该机构正在考虑让公司购买其火箭和宇宙飞船的冠名权。他还建议让美国国家航天局的宇航员（正式的政府雇员），出现在谷物麦片盒子上。

revealed：透露

astronauts：航天员

It is part of a drive towards "commercialisation", seen by its backers as a way to bring down the costs of space exploration while boosting efficiency.However, the embrace of the private sector has created a backlash among some former astronauts, who likened the proposals to the sound of "nails on a chalkboard".

这是推动“商业化”的一部分，支持这一观点的人认为这种方法可以降低探索太空的成本，同时又提高了效率。然而，一些前宇航员反对这一做法，他们认为这种建议就像“手指甲划黑板的声音”。

commercialisation：商业化

embrace：拥抱

Bridenstine, the Nasa administrator, floated some ideas for how commercialisation could work at a meeting of the Nasa advisory council last month.He said: "Is it possible for Nasa to offset some of its costs by selling the naming rights to its spacecraft, or the naming rights to its rockets?"

Nasa局长Bridenstine上个月与Nasa咨询委员会开会时，就商业化问题提出了一些想法。他说到：“Nasa是否有可能通过出售航天器和火箭的冠名权来抵消部分成本？”

advisory：顾问

offset：抵消

He added: "I'd like to see kids growing up, instead of maybe wanting to be like a professional sports star, I'd like to see them grow up wanting to be a Nasa astronaut, or a Nasa scientist.And so how do we make that a reality?... I'd like to see, maybe one day, Nasa astronauts on the cover of a cereal box, embedded into the American culture."

他还补充说到：“我还希望看到孩子们不再把成为职业体育明星作为成长的目标，而是希望自己长大后成为Nasa的一名航天员，或者是Nasa的科学家。那么我们如何才能实现这一目标呢？我认为，也许某一天，Nasa航天员的照片会出现在麦片盒上，深入美国文化。”

instead of：取而代之

embedded：植入

Branding attempts in space are not entirely new.Pizza Hut once painted its logo on a Russian rocket in 1999, while an Israeli milk company filmed an advert on the space station Mir.

在太空打广告并不是前所未有的事情。1999年，必胜客曾把自己的商标印在了俄罗斯火箭上。一家以色列的牛奶公司也曾在和平号空间站上拍摄过广告。

attempts：企图

advert：广告