MSFC, JSC, and NASA HQ, Still Ignore Each Other's Websites

Web site overlap may belie NASA divides, Federal Computer Week

“[Allard Beutel] added that NASA did not originally unify the Web sites because of the Internet’s maturity and its effect on Web development, not because of research center rivalries. “It’s not a matter of people not wanting to talk to each other,” Beutel said. “Each group is doing its own piece of the pie, serving the public. It’s been a process, and a process takes time.” “If you gave me five minutes, I could link these sites,” Cowing said. “This is not rocket science. It’s HTML.”

Editor’s update: By another strange coincidence the JSC page has also been updated to show one link to other resources – at MSFC – but not HQ. MSFC did a far better update. Editor’s update: Gee, by some strange coincidence the MSFC page was suddenly updated today – and links to other NASA tracking pages were added. JSC and HQ haven’t managed to update their pages yet.

Editor’s update: If you go to this page at NASA MSFC you are supposed to be able to enter your zip code and get the next time a satellite will pass overhead. Well, it seems that this little gadet doesn’t like my zip code (20190) – since it tells me that my zip code is 2019 after I enter 20190 and click ‘go’. I tried it in Safari, Explorer, and Firefox – and get the same (non) result.

Editor’s note: Why is it that this page, hosted by MSFC featuring various satellite tracking resources still cannot (after a decade of complaints on NASA Watch) link to a similar page – with similar resources – hosted by JSC – and vice versa? Oh yes, for what it is worth, watching both pages simultaneously, the MSFC site says that ISS is at an altitude of 353.1 KM and the JSC site says that the ISS is at 346.87 KM. MSFC shows ISS over the Spanish/French border while the JSC page shows it over Italy.

But wait, there’s more. If you go to this page, hosted by NASA HQ – which deals with ISS tracking – you will see that it doesn’t link to either page at JSC – or MSFC! And JSC and MSFC don’t link back to this page at NASA HQ!

And this is the same space agency that is going to cooperate between its headquarters and its various field centers so as to go back to the moon — when it can’t even get a few web weenies to coordinate? This ‘pretend the other site doesn’t exist’ tactic is tired – and just plain childish – on the part of Bryan Walls and Ron Koczor at MSFC, Kim Dismukes and John Ira Petty at JSC, and Dawn Brooks and Sarah Ramsey at NASA HQ. C’mon folks. Use taxpayer dollars responsibly and link to each other – and coordinate your resources. You all work for NASA, yes? You’d think that Joe Davis, NASA’s “strategic communications” guru, and Pat Dunnington, NASA’s Chief Information Officer, would be concerned about this sort of thing.

Just where Is the Space Station, NASA?, earlier post from 30 November 2004