NASAWatch Is 26
How It Started | How It’s Going
Keith’s note: NASAWatch turns 26 on 1 Apr 2022. It started as “NASA RIFWatch” on 1 Apr 1996 with this post “RIF at NASA In Summer 1997?“. The website was first hosted on a Mac Classic II on a 128 kbps ISDN line in my old little condo in Reston, Virginia (see 20 Years Ago Today: The Seeds of NASAWatch). Here are 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
Happy Anniversary…! (Unless this is a fake post??? 😉
NASAWatch has been run by a bot for the past 6 years – guess we forgot to post that . 😉
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grep day(*ay);
print(‘SLS budget and schedule slips’);
I know for sure you saved lives by bringing things to light. People trust NASA watch (even Sr, NASA and contractor management. But do fear it more.) I have been in meetings when someone has said “what if this gets on NASA watch?” No one fears the IG. But they do have a healthy respect for K Cowing. Well done NASA watch!
Thanks. FWIW Mrs. NASAWatch just rolls her eyes when she hears what I have posted 😉
Standard component of a functioning marriage.
Happy Anniversary Keith.
Happy Anniversary Keith. Very well done!
Thanks for keeping the format the same although there are more scripting and ads, which is needed to pay the bills so people can get latest gossip for free. At times it might get out of hand but overall reasonably balanced and I trust you make judgements to not post certain material you receive that could be compromising. Also thanks for managing comments, especially when things get out of hand require locking or deleting. And thanks for providing interviews to media with your skilled Miles Obrien style of describing space activities.
Thank You Keith! You helped save Ames Research Center in 1996. Your support, insights and knowledge of what was happening at HQ was critical as we worked through through the Zero Base Review.
My favorite NASA center!
Has any NASA center ever actually been closed? I was always under the impression that closing ANY NASA center is a political impossibility so any internal proposals of such a thing aren’t ever entertained or supported by top management.
Some have been significantly downsized, a fraction of what they used to be.
Applaud the humour in picking the launch date !
Applaud the efforts taken to keep it going a labour of love in a landscape of aridity and disenchantment.
I remember it well. Thanks,, Keith, for the original RIFWatch and all that has followed. You’ve really made a positive difference.