Cool Toys

NASA has a built-in publicity advantage over other government agencies or commercial businesses.  It has the cool toys every journalist wants to play with.  The systems and training devices the space agency has developed for its astronauts are fun to experience, and reporters line up for a chance to try them out.  NASA is only too willing to oblige their requests.  These then become positive stories that naturally promote the idea of space travel and NASA’s role in it.  Credit NASA for knowing how to use its machinery to good effect.  The agency has had dark moments in past years with astronauts dying from fire, explosions and disintegration of space vehicles, but it is hard to remember that when one is playing with the training equipment.