Artemis II astronaut finds two Outlook instances running on computers, call on Houston to fix Microsoft anomaly — puzzled caller describes ‘two Outlooks, and neither one of those are working’

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.”

right now the astronauts are calling houston because the computer on the spaceship is running two instances of microsoft outlook and they can't figure out why. nasa is about to remote into the computer

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.

The clipped NASA Artemis II stream shared above is currently still live, and you can watch it in full here. As it is live, there is no transcript provided on the video page. So I asked Google's Gemini to find the portion of the livestream where Outlook bugs were discussed.

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Google confirmed the quote from Grayson’s clip. It credited Commander Reid Wiseman talking to Mission Control in Houston at this time. “I also see that I have two Microsoft Outlooks, and neither one of those are working if you want to remote in,” said Wiseman at around 13 and a quarter hours into the livestream. Houston agreed to remote in to take a look at the issue.

About an hour later, the astronauts received the welcome news that Outlook was back online. However, it would appear offline... Nice piece of software. “For Outlook, we were able to get it open. It will show 'offline,' which is expected,” said the Capsule Communicator at Mission Control, at around 14 hours 20 minutes into the stream.

Microsoft Outlook anomaly in space

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.

Toilet troubles in space

While skipping through the live stream to locate the Outlook conversations, I also heard a discussion between Artemis II Orion and Mission Control about the spacecraft's toilets.

Reports suggest that a blinking fault light on the toilet signaled that a mechanical failure occurred about two hours into the mission. Specifically, we understand that a urine extraction fan jammed.

The fan’s purpose is to pull the urine away into a collection container, avoiding urine microgravity issues. Thankfully, one of the astronauts managed to clear the jam and get the fan spinning. NASA has confirmed the toilet is back online, although we’d like to know what brand of fans the space agency uses…

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