NASA Asked Me To Review Their New Website

Keith’s note: I just got this from NASA PAO: “Wanted to see if you had time to connect with a NASA expert on the agency’s new beta website, on-demand streaming platform, and app update. For context, here is our latest news release detailing the digital transformation. … We would love to arrange backgrounder interviews on any or all of NASA’s new platforms so you can learn more about our digital transformation and use them as a source for any of your reporting going forward.” Below is my quick drive-by review of the beta site that I sent to the folks at NASA PAO including Marc Etkind and Johnny Stephenson. Let’s just say it has a few things to fix …

“I was not going to bother spending much time reviewing the beta site. The following – albeit superficial – analysis took me less than 15 minutes to do. Now I have something to post on NASAWatch today.

I just used the beta search engine for “Artemis” and the top search result is a story about Singapore from 2022. The main Artemis website does not seem to show up in the search results. When I type “NASA Administrator” the first result says “Administrator Jim Bridenstine” FWIW The current website search engine – still not the best – is far more accurate and keyed into agency priorities.

If you go to https://beta.nasa.gov/nasa-directorates/ – scroll down and click on “NASA Organization” you get sent to https://beta.nasa.gov/missions/ which shows multiple copies of the text “EZIE Stories Amendment 36: F.19 Multidomain Reusable Artificial Intelligence Tools Not Solicited This Year1 min readWhen it is solicited, Multidomain Reusable Artificial Intelligence Tools (MDRAIT) solicits proposals…”

If you then click on “missions and click on “active” you get sent to https://beta.nasa.gov/missions/?terms=10828 which has “30 ” search results – 1/2 of which have no introductory text – and are in a chaotic order with no thought given to priority. or size. The “antarctic station” image – an inflatable structure – was last erected and used 20 years ago. If I click on “future missions” there are only 9 search results (really, that’s all you have planned, NASA?) and the first one is the Boeing Starliner that is years behind schedule.

P. S. on Twitter (or “X”) Your number 2 guy @jfstephenson1 has only 111 followers and follows 46 semi random accounts (including Anthony Scaramucci – and @NASAWatch (thanks!) and still says that he is “Director/Strategic Analysis & Comm at NASA/Marshall Space Flight Center, Real Estate investor, Sports fan”.

Y’all really need to do a “whole of agency” revamp to your online presence. Nice start – but you have a long way to go to make the new site better than the current site.”