Most of us would have experienced the dreaded ‘blue screen of death’ at some stage. Despite potential loss of data (thank goodness for auto save) it was just a simple case of cursing the PC, flicking the power switch and away you go again. However it’s probably a whole different ball game when your computers start failing in space. That was the situation faced this week on the International Space Station.

There was a slim chance that the space station would have to be abandoned after navigation computers started to malfunction. NASA decided to keep the space shuttle docked with the station for an extra day just in case they had to use it to help steer the massive space station.

Fortunately Russian flight controllers managed to restore two of the three systems on Friday but NASA is still considering leaving the shuttle docked for another day or two just in case!

So the next time your PC dies on you just remember it could be a lot worse than just losing a data file or two!

Source: Reuters

Featured Tags international_space_station, space_shuttle


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Renown theoretical physicist Stephen Hawkings is captured on video spinning like a whirling dervish in zero gravity aboard a Boeing 727. He experienced eight twenty-five seconds bursts of zero g as the specially modified 727 peaked on its roller coaster flight path, lucky devil.

But it wasn’t all about having a weightless joyride, the flight raised US$150,000 for various charities including one for Lou Gehrig’s disease, from which Stephen has suffered for 40 years. He also hoped that the flight would ‘encourage copycats’ and make people say “If he can do it, I can, too.”. Good on ya Stephen and apparently no barf bag was required!

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