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Subscribe to RSSThe International Space Station suffers a communications glitch during a software download, but the problem was quickly resolved. NBC's Brian Williams reports.
NASA restored its communication link with the International Space Station on Tuesday, hours after it was knocked out by a glitch encountered during a computer software upgrade.
Josh Byerly, a spokesman for NASA's Johnson Space Center, told NBC News that the link was restored at 12:34 p.m. ET.
The outage began at about 9:45 a.m. ET, during a planned upgrade for the custom-coded software that NASA uses for command and control as well as voice and data communication with the space station, via the Tracking and Data Relay Satellite system, or TDRS. When the system switched from the primary computer to a backup computer, communications were lost immediately, Byerly said.
During the outage, the station's crew had to rely on Russian ground stations for communications. Those ground stations are in range only when the station is flying overhead, roughly every 90 minutes. "It's just like back in the old days, during Gemini," Byerly said. "We still need those antennas from time to time."
Byerly said NASA astronaut Kevin Ford, the station's commander, received instructions for resetting the computers during the Russian communication passes.
Similar software upgrade problems have occurred before, Byerly said, and engineers are looking into the specific causes for Tuesday's glitch. "It is a problem, but the crew was not in danger," he told NBC News.
More about space station operations:
Alan Boyle is NBCNews.com's science editor. Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the log's Facebook page, following @b0yle on Twitter and adding the Cosmic Log page to your Google+ presence. To keep up with Cosmic Log as well as NBCNews.com's other stories about science and space, sign up for the Tech & Science newsletter, delivered to your email in-box every weekday. You can also check out "The Case for Pluto," my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for new worlds.
Leave a Comment:
That's what happens when you put windows in a space station.
Unix actually.
Feeling ignorant yet? You should be.
@David9000
Oh, good; you have your humor deflector shields up. Well done.
Bet it was Windows 8.
NERDS!!!
Hey, I'M GLAD NASA and the Russian ground station got the thing working again !
Woo-hoo !!
Apparently it was China
Ooops! Come in Tokyo!!
You would think NASA would give those guys up there a cell phone to use.
After re-establishing contact, the "astronauts" blamed it on a software update. We know what really happened... the ISS has been taken over by aliens who required 3 hours to complete the growth in pods of perfect replicas of the crew. The original crew has now been whisked off to the alien homeworld to undergo gruesome experiments. After the current ISS mission rotation ends, the returning "astroNOTs" will soon establish a beachhead for the eventual invasion force.
Crap !!!!!!
The pods were small at first, but they grue some.
Love.
What's wrong with old technology? It works. We over think things. Like when we invented the pen that would write in zero gravity. We spent millions while the Russians used a pencil. Duh...
Maybe the upgrade was to fix another bug or increase performance
thats what happens when u put frikin new stuff up their i love u nasa i want to be an astronot please i love you thank u!
I guess NASA should have called AT&T or paid their monthly bill.
nice one up top!:):):):):):):)
They must have upgraded to Microsoft Windows 8! Lol
Windows 8 is the worst OS to visit mankind !!
Yeah but who hasn't used the old excuse, "Windows ate my homework".
no matter what it, was you n i will never know the truth...meteor?
That's when the aliens snuck onboard... LOL
i hope howard wolowitz is ok!
This is news ? !! International Space Station Hit by Large Meteor..... now that would ne news... bad news , but news !!
One thing for sure, what goes up must come down. Jokes are the begining of disaster.
I thought there were supposed to be the smartest "certified smart people" working on NASA projects. Then why does this happen again and again?
Smart people recognize smart people - no certification necessary.
If certification is used, look askance at those using it.
Oh, come on, people. It's obvious. The TRDS broke, so they had to replace it. But the new one looks a lot like a blue police call box.
Of course, it's a lot roomier on the inside then the last one. But it came with an occupant as well - some guy who calls himself "The Physician" or something like that.
Of course, now that it's "fixed", it needs an Inspector... someone who is familiar with space and time, I should think.
I love ufo magazine to