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NASA's Tangled Human Spaceflight Web Presence

By Keith Cowing
NASA Watch
April 25, 2012
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Keith’s note: One night in January I got frustrated trying to find something on NASA’s Human Spaceflight website(s). So, I decided to map them. As you can see from this chart (enlarge), NASA’s HSF web presence – like much of NASA’s sprawling cyber infrastructure – is an unorganized mess. Yet despite this convoluted web structure, people often manage to find things simply because a lot of what NASA does is so compellingly cool. People find this stuff despite the convoluted and confused way that NASA organizes things (Google).
As I have already noted, most missions at NASA have two, often three (or more) official websites and web addresses. The websites are often out of synch with each other and yet also duplicative – at the same time. NASA also has multiple entry points for the same topic, dead ends, and pages that reflect programs that are dead. I sent this chart over to NASA. They agreed: its a mess. 5 months later. No change. So I thought I’d share it with y’all.
NASA’s Inability To Speak With One Voice Online, earlier post

NASA Watch founder, Explorers Club Fellow, ex-NASA, Away Teams, Journalist, Space & Astrobiology, Lapsed climber.

9 responses to “NASA's Tangled Human Spaceflight Web Presence”

  1. npng says:
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    Good work Keith.

  2. lars0 says:
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    Keith, this is epic. Thanks.

  3. Stephen_Holmes says:
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    I’m seriously surprised you didn’t give yourself a headache trying to map all of NASA websites Keith

  4. Doug Booker says:
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    Not surprising.  Years ago I was looking at the NASA HSF history pages and the only space stations that were mentioned were MIR and Salyut. No mention of Skylab!  This was either before or very early in the ISS program.  I did post a comment to the Web page administrator and I have to say within a month or 2 there were links to Skylab added.  But it just makes me wonder why there isn’t any oversight of this stuff.  I mean come on, listing Soviet and Russian space stations on a NASA web site with no mention of the US one?

  5. JrScienceTeacher says:
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    What happened to the Life Sciences Data Archive?

  6. Littrow says:
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    Who do you think would be able to straighten out the mess? It would require someone being (1) in charge and (2) knowledgeable about how to straighten it out. What the bozos do not seem to understand is that in many ways their web presence, particularly as seen by people needing the NASA source content, is in many ways 90% of the understanding that taxpayers have of NASA’s value. If the assets are laid out clearly on the internet, then in many respects the assets don’t exist.

    • mfwright says:
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      It seems to me there are many different offices, skillsets, programs, test labs, experimental groups, researchers, etc. and maybe it is difficult to simply group into one hierarchal structure. When it is done, it becomes very simplistic and someone down below will be squelched out (i.e. flow viz techniques involving IP video and software processing which is very tedious). Of course there is the “big picture” but a balance is needed (someone posted on facebook, “does Star Trek make spaceflight look to easy?”). NASA is a very diverse organization and space is only half it’s mission (darned aeronautics, always the bridesmaid but never the bride).

      How about use the chart Keith made with hyperlinks? Everyone go to that first, then zero in on their subject of interest. But please avoid loading everything with tons of javascript and flash.