Since it began in 1958, NASA has been charged by law with spreading the word about its work “to the widest extent practicable.” From typewritten press releases to analog photos and film, NASA has effectively moved into social media and other online communications. NASA’s broad reach across digital platforms has been recognized by the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences (IADAS), which gave NASA 13 nominations for the academy’s Webby Awards this year.
At NASA, we share the secrets of the universe through every platform and media there is. These nominations—for websites, podcasts, social media, apps and virtual experiences—showcase the breadth and depth of the NASA digital team, as they inspire the next generation to reach for the stars.
Marc Etkind
NASA Associate Administrator for Communications
Public Voting Opportunities
Voting for the Webby People’s Voice Awards—chosen by the public—is open now through Thursday, April 18. Voting links for each category are listed below.
28th Annual Webby Nominees
Apps
Space Images
NASA, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Caltech
Apps & Software-General Apps | Education, Science & Reference
The Space Images app provides stunning new images of space, planets, Mars, asteroids, stars, galaxies, and cutting-edge space technology as they are released each week from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
Campaigns
NASA: Message in a Bottle
NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Advertising, Media & PR-PR Campaigns | Best Community Engagement
NASA’s Message in a Bottle campaign invited people around the world to sign their names to a poem written by the U.S. Poet Laureate Ada Limón. The poem connects the two water worlds — Earth, yearning to reach out and understand what makes a world habitable, and Europa, waiting with secrets yet to be explored. The campaign was a special collaboration, uniting art and science, by NASA, the U.S. Poet Laureate, and the Library of Congress.
Podcasts
NASA’s Curious Universe
Podcasts-Shows | Science & Education
As an official NASA podcast, Curious Universe brings you mind-blowing science and space adventures you won’t find anywhere else. Explore the cosmos alongside astronauts, scientists, engineers, and other top NASA experts who are achieving remarkable feats in science, space exploration, and aeronautics. Learn something new about the wild and wonderful universe we share. All you need to get started is a little curiosity. NASA’s Curious Universe is an official NASA podcast hosted by Padi Boyd and Jacob Pinter.
NASA’s Curious Universe: Suiting Up for Space
Podcasts-Individual Episodes | Science & Education
Spacesuits are more than just garments – in the airless vacuum of space or on the freezing surface of the moon, they keep astronauts alive. In this episode of NASA’s Curious Universe podcast, we explore how NASA engineers like Amy Ross and Paromita Mitra contributed to the development of the next generation of spacesuits.
Social
Hubble’s Servicing Mission 1
Social-Social Content Series | Education & Science
Shortly after its 1990 deployment, NASA discovered a flaw in the observatory’s primary mirror that affected the clarity of the telescope’s early images. Fortunately, Hubble’s design allowed astronauts to perform repairs, replace parts, and update its technology with new instruments while in orbit. Servicing Mission 1 was the first opportunity to install corrective optics that counteracted the primary mirror’s flaw, add new instruments, and conduct planned maintenance on the telescope.
NASA Social Media
Social-Features | Best Overall Social Presence, Brand
NASA’s flagship social media accounts host dynamic conversations about what’s new with America’s space agency, and why it matters. Spanning 15 social media platforms, these accounts reach more than 200 million people around the world.
NASA’s First Asteroid Sample Return Mission
Social-Social Campaigns | Education & Science
Science fiction became reality on Sept. 24, 2023 when NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft delivered rocks older than our own planet to the Utah desert, rocks that contain clues to the early solar system and the origins of life. The accompanying social media campaign and in-person, behind-the-scenes NASA Social event gave the public an inside look into NASA’s first mission to deliver an asteroid sample to Earth.
Annular Solar Eclipse
Social-Social Campaigns | Events & Live Streams
On Oct. 14, 2023, audiences across the web joined us live as a “ring of fire” eclipse. Visible in parts of the United States, Mexico, and many countries in South and Central America, millions of people in the Western Hemisphere experienced this eclipse.
Video
OSIRIS-REx Asteroid Sample Return (Official 4K NASA Live Stream)
Video-General Video | Events & Live Streams
Live coverage of OSIRIS-REx, the first U.S. mission to collect a sample from an asteroid, as it returned to Earth on Sept. 24, 2023, to drop off material from asteroid Bennu. The spacecraft didn’t land, but continued on to a new mission, OSIRIS-APEX, to explore asteroid Apophis. Meanwhile, scientists hope the Bennu sample OSIRIS-REx dropped into the Utah desert will offer clues to whether asteroids colliding with Earth billions of years ago brought water and other key ingredients for life here.
Virtual Experiences
NASA’s Immersive Earth
Artificial Intelligence (AI), Metaverse & Virtual-General Virtual Experiences | Science & Education
NASA created the Earth Information Center with founding partners FEMA, EPA, NOAA, USAID, USDA and USGS. The Earth Information Center draws data from research conducted by NASA’s centers and government and industry partners. The interactive physical exhibit is located inside NASA Headquarters in Washington, where visitors are invited to see how our planet is changing in six key areas: sea level rise and coastal impacts, health and air quality, wildfires, greenhouse gases, sustainable energy, and agriculture.
Websites
NASA.gov
Websites and Mobile Sites-General Desktop & Mobile Sites | Government & Associations
The new NASA web experience serves as an ever-expanding yet consolidated homebase for information about the agency’s missions and research, climate data, Artemis updates, and more. The updated nasa.gov and science.nasa.gov websites provide a connected, topic-driven experience, with a common search engine, integrated navigation, and optimized publishing capabilities in a modernized and secure set of web tools.
NASA+ Streaming Service
Websites and Mobile Sites-General Desktop & Mobile Sites | Television, Film & Streaming
Through the ad-free, no cost, and family-friendly streaming service, users gain access to the agency’s Emmy Award-winning live coverage and views into NASA’s missions through collections of original video series, including new series debuting on the streaming service. NASA+ also streams live event coverage, where people everywhere can watch in real-time as the agency launches science experiments and astronauts to space, and ultimately, the first woman and person of color to the Moon.
Hubble’s Inside the Image
NASA, Origin Films
Video-Video Series & Channels | Science & Education
In this ongoing series, astronomers explain the history and high-level science behind some of Hubble’s most beautiful, groundbreaking, and iconic images.
About the Webby Awards
Established in 1996, The Webbys is presented by the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences (IADAS)—a 3000+ member judging body comprised of leading Internet experts, business figures, luminaries, visionaries and creative celebrities. The Webbys honors excellence in nine major media types: websites and mobile sites, video, advertising, media and public relations, apps and software, social, podcasts, games and Metaverse, virtual and artificial Intelligence (AI).
The Webby Awards presents two honors in every category—The Webby Award and The Webby People’s Voice Award. Members of the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences (IADAS) select the nominees for both awards in each category, as well as the Winners of The Webby Awards. The Webby People’s Voice is awarded by the voting public.