Nothing attracts media attention like an International Security Breach near NASA! If they had only fired a warning shot accross his bow,... it would be all over mainstream news...
Either that or a death of some sort, "crew strangles skipper with spin sheet" should make it on CNN
For sponsorship you could "sell" each leg of the race to a sponsor, the first leg could be the Disney leg, second leg the Coca-Cola leg etc.
