Space watchers enthralled by the live stream from NASA’s Artemis II Orion spacecraft have noticed that even astronauts can have trouble with Microsoft software. BlueSkyer Niki Grayson clipped an amusing segment of the live stream, where a puzzled astronaut asks for support from Mission Control because they “have two Microsoft Outlooks, and neither one of those are working.”
Grayson was agog at NASA inflicting Outlook on astronauts. “I’m so sorry we’ve sent these souls to the moon and they’re using Outlook?” they quipped.
In space no one can hear you scream
Well, that inspires confidence.
The Apollo 11 Guidance Computer had 4KB RAM and 72KB ROM, but the code was provably correct. How the mighty have fallen.
Why the fuck are public things that are tied to a budget always have to waste money on Microsoft software while they can just use Libre alternatives
If I understand it correctly, the ship’s built-in systems run a Linux-based RTOS, the dumbfuckery is happening on an off the shelf Surface tablet.
They’re still making Microsoft look like a million monkeys fucking a million footballs.
two instances of Outlook
pst/ost corruption incoming.
I asked my Magic 8-ball what the problem is and it says “Outlook not so good”
😂
To some readers, even choosing Outlook as a part of a spacecraft’s communications portfolio would seem to be an anomaly. However, it is a standard part of the “Commercial Off-The-Shelf” (COTS) software astronauts use for their day-to-day operations.
To be clear, the spacecraft and primary flight systems will run on specialized radiation-hardened hardware and rigorously maintained software. COTS just complements this with a friendly layer, like Windows and Outlook, so astronauts can check schedules, indulge in personal communications, and so on, in a familiar way.
Kinda wild that we have such an abundance of processing power and memory that even space missions can load up with bloated software for the sake of “friendly” user interfaces.
As someone who has used Outlook a lot in an enterprise environment, I would not have believed that literal NASA astronauts use it for even the smallest task. Not because it can’t accomplish the task, but because of how slow, buggy, and unreliable it tends to be, even when properly managed by a capable IT team. They have been in space less than a day and they’re already wasting time and energy troubleshooting
“friendly”? 🤣
Phenomenal. They chose the buggiest operating system for a spacecraft. Amazing.
Linux?
Two outlooks, neither work?
Glad everything is normal aboard Orion!
We use outlook st work.
It used to hsve switch “try new…” Now it switched to “use old…”
I opted old.
Mailto links open new outlook.
Shit’s shit.
I have the outlook lite app on my phone. It simultaneously prompts me to move my other accounts over there, and to uninstall it because it’s becoming deprecated soon.
Ooh, did Mission Control tell them to turn the capsule off and then on again?
Wait until they start mapping the moon’s far side using MS Paint. Tech support must stay on the line!
They must be using my work laptop, sometimes it runs outlook or teams in multiples.
Outlook: redundant dysfunctionality
They’re obviously holding it wrong.
