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I don’t know who needs to hear this, but it seems to come up in my life weekly:
1. NASA images *are not* in the public domain;
2. They *are* generally free to use for most non-commercial, educational, & informational purposes without permission, but credit to NASA et al. is needed (which true PD would not require);
3. For commercial use, no endorsement by NASA can be implied;
4. Images featuring people, e.g. astronauts, need explicit permission for commercial use.
The names/trademarks/insignia are definitely protected.
But I thought the content - images etc - couldn't be. Everything created by the US government and its agencies is ineligible for copyright - or at least that's been the common understanding.
The policy page you point to even seems to confirm this:
"NASA content – images, audio, video, and media files used in the rendition of 3-dimensional models, such as texture maps and polygon data in any format – generally are not subject to copyright in the United States."
@cazabon Well, I can but point to the same webpage where NASA assert that their content (if we take that be what imagery refers to in the opening paragraph) is not in the public domain.
Whether that's true or not is really up to NASA, the US govt, & the courts.
And the federal govt public domain thing strictly only applies when the work was done by US govt officers & employees. It's very likely not true when it involves universities and/or international partners not funded by NASA.