Keith’s note: I got a note back from NASA PAO in response to my comments on their new beta website yesterday: “Thank you for taking the time to check out the beta site. We’ve forwarded your comments to the team members who are working in real-time to continue updating and improving the new site. We appreciate feedback, and don’t hesitate to let us know if you find other issues or questions.” I replied: “Thanks. Here’s more – Comments generated in real time – if a 67 year old guy sitting in his basement can find all these errors in a matter of minutes doing random clicking – yet your IT contractor has not even thought to do in-house beta testing FIRST before inviting millions of people to weigh in – then you have a problematic website contractor. Just sayin'” [my detailed additional comments below.]

Keith’s note: NASA PAO and SMD have repeatedly told me that the NASA Astrobiology program’s Twitter account @NASAAstrobio and its official website would be unable to link to or follow my twitter account @Astrobiology (with nearly 22,000 followers) or its companion website Astrobiology.com which ranks in the 3rd – 4th search results for “astrobiology” on Google, Yahoo etc. – globally – and has for decades (since 1996 to be exact). […]

Keith’s note: You may have noticed that I am doing a global critique of NASA’s education and public outreach activities. The prime public face that NASA outs forth – the way it explains itself to the public – are its websites and social media. NASA lives to brag about the sheer size of what they do online – which is easily the most diverse and pervasive of any American government […]

Keith’s note: Websites are a thing that people have been doing for a quarter of a century. Despite all of the fancy graphics and tricks there are some basic things a good website should do. NASA has lots of websites – more than any other government agency. The agency’s Internet reach is truly global. But it gets this global reach in spite of itself. Its web presence is a jumbled […]

NASA OIG: Fiscal Year 2020 Federal Information Security Modernization Act Evaluation – An Agency Common System “… We found that NASA had not assessed the Agency common control entitled SI-04, Information System Monitoring, since April 2015. Moreover, the control was classified in 2015 as “other than satisfied,” but system security officials still had not taken appropriate action to address the control deficiency by developing either a POA&M or Risk-Based Decision […]

Solar Winds, Probably Hacked by Russia, Serves White House, Pentagon, NASA, Newsweek “Two unnamed sources told the outlet that the hackers entered U.S. systems through updates released by SolarWinds, a software company based in Austin, Texas that also provides services to the White House, Pentagon and NASA, according to their website. Additionally, the company provides services to the country’s leading telecommunications providers, as well as “more than 425 of the […]

Keith’s note: Do a Google search for “NASA search engine“. The first search result that comes up is NASA Multimedia Search last updated on 26 February 2006. The second result that comes up is Tools for searching last updated on 21 July 2005. Look on the left hand side of either page. Click on simple search, category search, or Advanced search and you get “404 The cosmic object you are […]

Keith’s 18 Nov update: NASA wants to transmit their stuff to you. But they really don’t want you to talk to their people about it. Once upon a time – actually for more than a decade – you could go to people.nasa.gov to find out how to contact a government employee at NASA. Not any more. Here is what the site looked like on 28 October 2020. You used to […]

Hearing link, Hearing on Cybersecurity Infrastructure and Information Technology Management, Policies, and Practices at NASA Prepared statements – Rep. Kendra Horn – Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson – Rep. Brian Babin – Jeff Seaton, Chief Information Officer (Acting) National Aeronautics and Space Administration – Diana L. Burley, Vice Provost for Research, American University – Paul K. Martin, Inspector General, National Aeronautics and Space Administration “Our concerns with NASA’s IT governance and […]

Keith’s note: When most people hear the phrase “space science” it is logical to expect that they think of “science” in “space”. Maybe its astronomy or planets. Maybe its studying how humans live in space. Perhaps its analyzing samples from another world or looking for life in the universe. It might even include looking down at Earth from space. But “space science” simply refers to “science” – and not any […]