NASA Watch

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NASA Watch front page

NASA Watch is a website which provides insider information and commentary about the United States space program and NASA. NASA Watch was created in March 1996 and is maintained by space biologist-turned-journalist Keith Cowing.

Cowing is a staunch supporter of human spaceflight. He started the website when Daniel Goldin was administrator of NASA and at that time expressed harsh criticism of Goldin's policies. For several years, NASA refused to accredit Cowing as a journalist and denied him access to NASA media events. Cowing was eventually granted full press accreditation.

Although a declared Democrat,^{[citation needed]} Cowing was a firm supporter of Goldin's successor as administrator, Sean O'Keefe, appointed by George W. Bush, and even obtained exclusive first-hand information about the genesis of the Vision for Space Exploration, detailed in the book New Moon Rising which Cowing wrote with Frank Sietzen.

With the appointment of Michael Griffin as administrator, the relationship between NASA Watch and NASA seems to have returned to a more confrontational. Cowing has written negatively about a return to Goldin-style management practices. Cowing dubbed Monday, June 13, 2005 as Black Monday when many NASA personnel were sent reassignment letters.

The site's blog-like news postings run the gamut from insightful praise of NASA's efforts to unvarnished descriptions of the agency's failures.