[reitzensteinm]

This would be more like the President renting out a room in the White House. I think the line is actually pretty clear; if you're using state resources to produce something of value to sell for private profit, you're on the wrong side of it.

While 400 stamps don't weigh a lot, they'd still cost more than $1 each to launch by my back of the envelope calculations. You're effectively footing NASA with a $500 bill to pocket $21k.

[jedberg]

But they are allowed to bring personal items on board. The error here was clerical. In fact some of the covers were listed under the personal items section.

So was that wrong? They opted to take those instead of other personal items.

[reitzensteinm]

I believe the profit motive made it wrong, yes. It creates a fundamental conflict of interest in the allocation of taxpayer resources.

This might not have been a severe case, but NASA was absolutely right to come down on it hard.

[TheSpiceIsLife]

Or, it demonstrates a lack of foresight by NASA to take advantage of an opportunity to sell a bunch of stamps over the following decades at wildly inflated prices.

There must be at least a handful of items that don't weight a lot per 1000 units that could have gone to the moon and back. I'm thinking pretty much any paper document or certificate, cash notes.

[dr_dshiv]

That's how Hearst funded the first round-the-world flight, on the Grad Zeppelin. Novelty stamps!

But mixed motivations can be confusing and demotivating.

[sigi45]

I don't know common sense? Honor? Respect perhaps?

[brianwawok]

Or how about the President having guests stay in personal hotel chains?

Oh wait...

[JetSpiegel]

The crack down will probably come, just delayed by a few years.

[trickstra]

you optimist

[dmerfield]

Not sure if you’re hinting at this but President Clinton was actually caught renting out a room in the White House:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lincoln_Bedroom_for_contribu...