Surprising but true: America's National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year. Technically, it was legislated into existence on July 29, 1958, though the U.S. had already launched its first satellite on January 31 of that year.

The NASA website offers a Historical Timeline to celebrate its birthday, along with lots of old photos, control room countdowns and launch videos.
NASA was set up in response to the Soviet Union's launch of the first manmade satellite, Sputnik 1, in October 1957. That was an impressive technological feat, but didn't have any useful applications. Today, of course, everyone is aware of everyday benefits of space technology. These include satellite TV broadcasting, and location finding via GPS (Global Positioning System) satellites.
Although best known for putting a man on the moon, NASA has many other achievements to its name. The most prominent are sending probes to the outer planets, the Hubble Space Telescope (which has its own site), and the International Space Station. In the future, NASA also plans a permanent moonbase and hopes to put a man on Mars.
NASA is well aware that its funding depends on the American taxpayer, and it makes a tremendous effort to provide things that will entertain taxpayers who visit the site. It has an Image of the Day Gallery, Astronomy Picture of the Day, Flash animations, NASA TV, videos, podcasts and a couple of blogs. There's also lots of educational material, plus a NASA Kids' Club that includes games.
Distant galaxies
It's hard not to be impressed by colorful images of distant galaxies and other phenomena such as the Crab nebula photographed by Hubble. If you like that, NASA also provides a 2400 x 3000 pixel image that you can save and print out.
Another important part of the site is the Mission Calendar, which provides details of launches (14 this year) and ongoing missions, which can attract worldwide attention. The next major event is probably on May 25, when Phoenix, the latest Mars lander, is due to reach the Red Planet.
NASA redesigned and relaunched its website last December to increase its appeal to the MySpace generation of 18 to 25-year-olds. It is certainly better organized, and now offers MyNASA where users can collect things they like. But it's also overburdened with pop-ups: even the pop-ups have pop-ups!
Maybe the new site works for young adults, but it can get tedious for older users who don't like things that jump about. The new site also seems slower than the old tabbed design. Fortunately, the preferences section lets you opt to ""Always use Non-Flash Version"" or ""Always open Low Bandwidth"" (a text version). The non-Flash NASA site still has pop-ups and pictures that jump up, but it is quicker for users outside the U.S.
In 1969, rocket scientist Wernher Von Braun quipped: ""There is one thing I can promise you about the outer-space program — your tax dollars will go further."" I think he'd be surprised how far they go on the web.
(Source: Guardian)