Space, it seems, is the place to be. Elon Musk’s SpaceX recently sent two NASA astronauts into space, while Richard Branson is also trying to make space travel more accessible with his Virgin Galactic space flights. Elsewhere, Tom Cruise and Musk have also developed an action-adventure movie that is set to be filmed in space in 2021.
In a somewhat surprising turn of events, iconic beauty brand Estée Lauder is also jumping on the space bandwagon and is sending products to space in order to shoot a new campaign. According to Business Insider Australia, Estée Lauder is shelling out US$180,000 to have the advert shot by NASA on the International Space Station (ISS). Wild!
Estée Lauder will be sending 10 bottles of its Advanced Night Repair Synchronized Multi-Recovery Complex serum into space, where it will be filmed and photographed by NASA astronauts in a four-and-a-half-hour shoot located in the ISS’s Cupola — an observatory with seven windows that provide panoramic views of space.
The astronauts won’t appear in the images themselves and according to Business Insider Australia, won’t be paid extra to shoot the campaign imagery. The bottles of serum will return to earth in the Northern Hemispheres’s spring season and Estée Lauder is set to auction one bottle off for charity.
Just last year, NASA declared the International Space Station open to other industries in what it calls a “low-Earth orbit economy”. This initiative dedicates around 5% of crew time to commercial activities, like the Estée Lauder campaign, which will total around 90 hours of astronaut work time every year and bring in much-needed funds for NASA to continue its exploration of deep space.
The Advanced Night Repair serum is due to be added to a commercial resupply services mission for NASA on October 1, 2020, in the United States and will arrive at the ISS on October 4. According to a press release from Estée Lauder, this is the first beauty brand to launch into space with NASA.
“We are thrilled to reinforce our leadership once again as the first beauty brand to go into space,” said Stéphane de La Faverie, group president The Estée Lauder Companies & Global Brand President, Estée Lauder, said in a statement.
“NASA is at the forefront of space exploration, and as a leader in skincare innovation, Estée Lauder is proud to support the incredible work NASA is doing to promote a space economy by being the second-ever commercial product to launch.”