NASA has issued a formal policy that standardizes the criteria and process for media accreditation to cover events and activities at all agency locations.
As written into the agency’s mission with the National Aeronautics and Space Act of 1958, NASA is charged to “…provide for the widest practicable and appropriate dissemination of information concerning its activities and the results thereof.”
As a publicly funded U.S. government agency, NASA is committed to making access to its facilities and personnel as open as possible. Therefore, it is the policy of NASA’s Office of Communications and the communications organizations at all NASA centers and locations to provide accreditation to media representatives, along with necessary virtual and on-site access to agency facilities and officials as resources allow.
“We want as many people as possible to know all the work NASA is doing to benefit Americans and people around the world, and one of the important and transparent ways we do that is through the coverage of our activities by professional media,” said Allard Beutel, director of the News and Multimedia Division in NASA’s Office of Communications. “Outer space may be infinite, but our space at NASA facilities and at news events is limited. A standard agencywide policy will help facilitate planning and maximize the ways media representatives – from news organizations to documentary and major motion picture producers – can see our missions, discoveries, and research and development firsthand and share them with the world. We also will continue our engagement directly with the public online and on social media to provide as many up close and personal views and interactions with the agency as possible.”
This is NASA’s first agencywide media accreditation policy. The agency previously has had media accreditation policies at various NASA locations that were similar, but not uniform.
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