The History of Space

So today’s blog is about an amazing website that allows you to go back to the future (allow time to hum awesome theme song).  The website is http://archive.org/.  There is a tool on this website called the Way Back Machine that allows you to look at a website from inception until now.  In other words you can go back and look at what the future looked like in the year 2000.  The website I chose to look at is http://history.nasa.gov.  NASA holds a special place in my heart as I am from the Space Coast of Florida.  I have watched countless space shuttle missions and, even though I was young, I remember watching Challenger explode in the sky above me.  As well, both of my parents and I, have worked at the Kennedy Space Center on separate occasions.   With the recent passing of Neil Armstrong I have been looking back at the history of American Space Exploration.  When I saw this tool I knew I wanted to look at this website. 

The first snapshot that is available is from March 2^nd, 2000.  I was actually interning at the NASA Chief Counsel Office at the time.  The website is very simple.  The homepage is just a paragraph stating the mission of the website.  It is very easy to navigate.  There is a topic index and a key word search.  As you can imagine there is a lot of information and it is all listed alphabetically.  The search function did not work but that may be because I am using the Wayback Machine to view it.  When I do click on information for the Challenger incident it brings up various documents relating to the incident.  One of which is the transcript from prelaunch through the accident.  The last word spoken by the Pilot is “Uhoh”

I will use NASA history to guide me to the next look back.  The next incident occurred on Feb 1^st 2003 when the Space Shuttle Columbia blew up on reentry over Texas.   I looked at March 22, 2003 and the site has changed drastically.  The url now directs you to the NASA Headquarters page.  There is a History Tab that does not work.    The front page has a section titled “The latest news on the loss of Columbia and her Crew”.  The interface is not very user friendly.            

Through the next year and a half it appears that link would go back and forth from the History page to the NASA Headquarter Page.  On October 13, 2004 the site under goes another drastic remodel and is now titled the NASA History Office.  This is very pleasing to the eye.  There are scrolling pictures at the bottom and a Topical Index on the side.  It also has a very recognizable search button. This design is the same as the current web page. 

This website is an archival website and not an exhibit.  It uses a visual hierarchy to list broad topics.  Even the picture and videos are listed this way.  In their ‘about us’ description it does state that they do a variety of special Web exhibits.  I do not see any currently on this site.  This website is a good representation of NASA.  There is a lot of information and they have it easily accessible.   I feel I am privileged to have lived in an area with such rich History and to have worked at a place that sent Man to the Moon.  Even if it was a little before my time…