1/Only difference vs. pre-Internet: pre-Internet, planetary mission launches were hardly covered at all. Checked Nexis re: '97 Cassini launch. LAT was there, WaPo used Bill Harwood. Seth Borenstein of Orlando Sentinel. CNN was live.
-
A ton of people were on site for the Pluto flyby and end of Cassini. Different people now — web people instead of newspaper reporters, a film crew for some streaming service, a blogger from the Planetary Society — but it's good. Arguably better than ever.
You've got a point if we're all sitting in our virtual reality cocoons for the Europa Clipper orbital insertion and attending the news conferences via avatar. But I'll bet that there will be a press gaggle at JPL—hopefully, me included.
