Keith’s note: NASAWatch turns 23 on 1 Apr 2019. It started as “NASA RIFWatch” on 1 Apr 1996 and was first hosted on a Mac Classic II on an ISDN line in my little condo in Reston, Virginia (see 20 Years Ago Today: The Seeds of NASAWatch). Here a few things from those early days that are still online:
– Rogue Webmasters, Government Executive, 1 Oct 1996
– NASA’s Most Important Asset, Gerry Griffin, 31 December 1996
– Dan Goldin Comments to the Space Science Advisory Committee (SSAC) Meeting, 6/17/96
– Changes in Thinking At NASA November 29, 1996, PBS News Hour
Plus this piece from 2016
– NASA Watch Celebrates 20 Years of Critiquing the Space Agency’s Every. Single. Move., Inverse (2016)
Just to show you how things have changed, this photo should shock a few of you … (well worth a click – link fixed) – and no, it is not an April Fool’s joke. Today, some up and coming bloggers and digeratti love to throw snark at me just like I threw it at Dan Goldin back in the day. Life is funny like that.
Those of you who have followed my ‘other’ exploits will know that I have had a certain interest in doing online updates from distant and extreme locations (Devon Island, Everest Base Camp, etc.). This website (still online), “The McMurdo Dry Valleys Long-Term Research Project – Life in Extreme Environments; An Antarctic Field Journal“, done with my friend Dale Andersen, was one of the very earliest – possibly the first – website actually updated from Antarctica.
People have been asking me to look back on things and pick the events that are most memorable. After all I have spent 1/3 of my life running this thing. I have been given many chances to do things because of my peculiar notoriety. This shaky video, done live with my friend Miles O’Brien in 2009 – about our mutual friend Scott Parazynski – while this picture was being taken – is the one singular moment where it all came together.
Thanks to all of you for stopping by for the past 23 years.

Biologist, Explorers Club Fellow, ex-NASA Space Biologist and Payload integrator, Editor of NASAWatch.com and Astrobiology.com, Lapsed climber, Explorer, Synaesthete, Former Challenger Center board member...

7 replies on “NASAWatch Is 23”

  1. Happy birthday to you! My primary source of real space news.

    By the way, the “this photo” link is broken for me. I’m assuming it’s the one of you and you-know-who.

    Edit: Found the right URL for the photo: http://www.moonviews.com/20… (the URL in the post has “-” dash characters instead of “_” underscore characters).

  5. I don’t remember how I found NW in later 90s, maybe from usenet sci.space.news. I remember those days when the latest craze was downsizing and companies working on how many people they can lay off.

    I like the format able to easily view headlines with a abstract paragraph, and opportunity to post comments. I think Keith and Mark do a good job on moderating, a balancing act of those posting opinions with strong disagreement to trolls that simply cause trouble. News and articles provide interesting updates and insightful info.

    Ads I understand help pay expenses but at least they are not abtrusive like I see on many other websites. Sometimes Disqus does some weird stuff but overall the webpage format is the same (I hate when sites change their appearance, I want info not glamour).

    At times I’d like to see other commentary besides the same 20 or 30 people though it could become unmanageable like many subreddit groups.

    anyway Happy Birthday!

  7. Happy birthday! Keep up the great work! I like NASA, but I trust you much more than I trust NASA.

Comments are closed.