Fifty years ago this month, Alan Shepard became the first American in space. On Monday, the shuttle Endeavour is scheduled to lift off on its last launch. A few months after that, the shuttle Atlantis is slated to perform the final mission of the 30-year space shuttle era.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration has come a long way in the last half-century. You can explore the space agency's storied past, keep up-to-date on current missions and peek at its planned future on nasa.gov.
The official NASA website is loaded with information, images and videos covering all aspects of space exploration. In fact, the abundance of content can be overwhelming when viewing the site. It's a challenge to organize vast amounts of data into an easily accessible interface. You'd think the agency that put a man on the moon would be up to the challenge, but unfortunately, it comes up a little short.
***** Houston, we have a problem
Astronomer Carl Sagan used to talk about the ""billions and billions"" of stars in the universe. While NASA's website may not be as crowded as the universe, there are over 100 clickable links, including text, graphics and photos, crammed on the home page alone. Each link takes you to more pages chock full of stuff. Slideshows of constantly changing pictures on most pages add to the feeling of being overwhelmed.
Logical labeling and consistent design throughout the pages are helpful when attempting to navigate this galaxy of information. And the journey is well worth the time spent orbiting the site. The information is fascinating, the videos can be riveting and the images are spectacular.
***** Godspeed
If you're expecting the space agency's site to travel at warp speed you'll be a little disappointed. Many of the pages take a relatively long time to load, even on a fast Internet connection. That's probably due to all the video, audio and interactive graphics. Again, despite some of the design and technical issues, it's easy to spend lots of time on this site without getting bored.
The extensive image and video collections can keep you entertained for hours. NASA is in the unique position of being able to offer images from the vantage point of space. These pictures of the stars, planets, and the earth are often stunning.
Besides the photos accompanying the various stories featured on every page, there are many photo galleries available to browse. They focus on aircraft, space centers, telescope views and more. The Great Images in NASA gallery has historical images, such as Neil Armstrong's first steps on the moon, or the first photo of Earth taken from the moon. The Hubble gallery features a breathtaking selection of images from the space telescope. Many of the pictures can be downloaded in high resolution and used with minimal copyright restrictions.
The video galleries are equally engaging. A feature on Shepard's historic flight combines archival footage and images with contemporary interviews of some of the astronauts and technicians involved in the Mercury program. It gives a real sense of the bravery, intelligence and arrogance these men displayed in their quest to be thrust free of the Earth's gravity atop a hurtling, flaming rocketship. The excitement of it all still animates the aging explorers' faces as they recount the mission.
**** The final frontier
Some of the most interesting stuff happens when NASA studies Earth from space. Satellite images of the recent tornado tracks in the southern United States and the swollen Mississippi River add a breaking news edge to the agency's mission. A computer display of airline traffic over the U.S. on a typical day, during severe weather, and on Sept. 11, 2001, is fascinating to watch.
There's just too much stuff on this website to cover in this column. NASA TV, mission calendars, RSS feeds, blogs, e-books, kids clubs, games and more are just some of features of the site. It's connected to all the major social media sites, such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.
While NASA's website could use a redesign and some tweaking to make it more efficient, it's still a marvelous collection of stories and images.
(Source: thetimes-tribune.com)