To everyone who took my advice and went out of their way to watch the NASA press conference last week, please accept my heart-felt apologies. Like so many promising assignments it turned out to be a boring, unwatchable dud. Just so you know, for every memorable press conference I covered in my 35 years in the business, there were at least ten like that one.
The never-ending talk-a-thon (NASA takes unlimited questions from groups of bored, long-winded technical science reporters - who never fail to identify themselves - located in at least four locations scattered around the planet) could be boiled down to this: As the triumphant Voyager project turns 30 years-old, both of the damn things are still working (as are the grey-haired NASA employees playing with their remote controls) and still making discoveries. Most-importantly, we've learned that the powerful solar wind can’t be measured anymore after the last planet. We've also confirmed that the vastness of space contains about what we predicted – nothing.
Nevertheless, I still recommend that you get to know the NASA website where you’ll almost always find something fascinating to watch. I can watch the live shot of the earth taken from the International Space Station for hours but some of the live video is compelling. And almost all of it is ignored by the MSM (which is also known as the main stream media to Americans who don’t watch Fox News).
