When NASA astronaut Neil Armstrong set foot on the Moon on July 20, 1969, he famously said “One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.”

And now the landmark trip to the moon is one giant grift for Melania Trump. She’s released a new collection of nonfungible tokens (NFTs) and these commemorate man’s landing on the Moon with a famous photo of NASA Astronaut Buzz Aldrin walking on the lunar surface, Gizmodo reports.

But there’s one small problem: NASA doesn’t approve of the use of its imagery for NFTs.

Melania released the Apollo 11 NFT collection Wednesday, one day short of the 54th anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission. The limited edition collectible, titled “Man on the Moon” is a pricey $75 and it includes an embedded audio file that “collectors will unlock” upon purchase.

"Tomorrow is a very big day because [on July 20, 1969,] we planted a beautiful American flag on the moon. And that was an achievement" Pres Donald J. Trump, July 19, 2019

Man on the Moon
Celebrating Apollo 11's Lunar Landinghttps://t.co/OU9OE75DU2#NASA #Apollo11#ManontheMoon pic.twitter.com/wY8qoQfSsN

— USAmemorabilia (@USAmemorabilia) July 19, 2023

The Man on the Moon NFT borrows a particularly iconic image from NASA’s Moon mission, where astronauts Armstrong and Aldrin landed. The photo was taken by Armstrong and it shows Aldrin near the leg of the lunar module Eagle on the lunar surface.

NASA’s images are not usually copyrighted and are made available to be used for educational or informational purposes. However, NASA draws a very big line when it comes to NFTs.

The space agency notes in its Regulations for Merchandising Requests that “NASA is not approving any merchandising applications involving Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs), as they are not consistent with the categories of products the Agency is approved to merchandise.” But that’s not all — the merchandising regulations also reflect a further denunciation of using images from the space agency for NFTs, referring to the space agency’s Media Usage Guidelines where NASA states quite clearly, “NASA does not wish for its images to be used for these purposes.”

Agency officials are undoubtedly not happy that Melania is doing this. NASA has made it extremely clear that it doesn’t want its content to be used for digital tokens. What we don’t know at the minute, however, is whether NASA can do anything about it since its iconic imagery is in the public domain.

The guidelines indicate that the agency would prefer that its images not be used for NFTs, but it seems this isn’t ironclad. Apparently, they are not necessarily protected by copyright law, which of course means that the griftier sorts, like Melania Trump, can take advantage of this.

And the former first lady isn’t the only person to use NASA imagery for NFTs. In April, Anicorn Watches released the first NASA-branded NFT. It sold for more than $41,000, and Gizmodo reports:

“As far as we know, NASA never really addressed the digital artwork. The space agency could also ignore Trump’s latest NFT collection, or might use it as an opportunity to protect its content from unwanted usage.”

This is a really low step for Melania to take. She has an estimated net worth of at least $50 million and you can bet none of the money from this newest set of NFTs will benefit NASA in any way. And she’s now under scrutiny after it was discovered that she received $155,000 from a super PAC affiliated with her hubby, ex-President Donald Trump.

All Melania is doing is following the Trump family tradition of grifting and I really doubt this woman cares anything about the Apollo 11 Moon landing.