Artemis II Astronaut: 'I Have Two Microsoft Outlooks, and Neither One of Those Are Working'
In space no one can hear you scream -- at Microsoft:
Many a frustrated user has sworn they'll launch Microsoft Outlook into space, but NASA has actually done it – on a journey around the Moon, where it's now causing problems for astronauts.
The astronauts aboard the Orion spacecraft currently circling the Earth are taking care of a bunch of housekeeping tasks, including getting their devices working. Judging by some space-to-ground communications with controllers at Houston, it isn't going well.
NASA has helpfully provided a YouTube channel showing live views from the Orion spacecraft, as well as snippets of communication. During this stream, one of the astronauts can be heard first asking for help with network connectivity (IT support staff will be delighted to know that one troubleshooting step involves turning the device off and on) before telling controllers, "I have two Microsoft Outlooks, and neither one of those are working."
Multiple Outlooks is something that is all too familiar to many Windows users. A year ago, the acceptable face of development at Microsoft, Scott Hanselman, parodied the situation by listing some tongue-in-cheek variants to go with Outlook (Classic) and Outlook (New). How about Outlook (Zero Sugar), Outlook (Caffeine Free), and so on? The Orion 'nauts could well be looking at Outlook (Deep Space), Outlook (Low Earth Orbit), or even Outlook (Tentacle Edition).
And, for at least one of the four Artemis II crew members, none of the Outlooks is working.
Even if you go 384,000 km away, you still can't get away from your email.
Update: As of Saturday morning, Artemis 2 is now closer to the moon than it is to earth. [JR-04012026-0640utc]
Toilet Troubles on Artemis 2
Within hours of launching four astronauts on NASA's Artemis 2 mission around the moon, its crew reported a glitch in what may have been the most anticipated new creature comfort of their Orion spacecraft: their space toilet.
Artemis 2 mission specialist Christina Koch noted an issue starting up part of the Orion capsule's toilet — which NASA calls the Universal Waste Management System — that deals with urine collection.
"The toilet fan is reported to be jammed," NASA spokesperson Gary Jordan said during live mission commentary. "Now the ground teams are coming up with instructions on how to get into the fan and clear that area to revive the toilet for the mission."
Norm Knight, NASA's director of flight operations, told reporters here at the Kennedy Space Center that the malfunction was due to a controller issue on the toilet. But NASA confirmed astronauts could still use the space commode to poop, just not urinate, though engineers were working to restore it to full service.
"In the meantime they're getting their contingency — their backup waste management capabilities specifically for urine," Jordan said. "The fecal collection of the toilet, that specific capability, can still be used with the waste management system aboard Orion."
NASA astronaut Christina Koch works with a test version of the Orion space toilet.
Artemis 2 mission specialist Christina Koch (right) works with a test version of the Orion space toilet. | Credit: NASA
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A few hours after Koch reported the toilet issue to Mission Control, flight controllers walked her through a series of steps to try and fix it."Houston, Integrity, good checkout," Koch said after trying the fix.
Then, some relieving news.
"Happy to report that toilet is go for use," Mission Control's Capcom Amy Dill radioed Koch. "We do recommend letting the system get to operating speed before donating fluid, and then letting it run a little bit after donation."
"We are cheers all around, and we will do that," Koch replied.
It does sound like at least one crewmember used a contingency bag before the fix. Koch reported that one CCU, or Collapsible Contingency Urinal, was full and needed to be emptied overboard. Dill radioed up instructions on the best time for that dump, and all was well.
That may be a relief for the Artemis 2 astronauts, in more ways than one. NASA's Apollo astronauts did not have the luxury of a toilet when they flew to the moon in the 1960s and 1970s. They peed and pooped in plastic bags, then stowed the solid waste and vented urine overboard into space.
The toilet aboard Orion is a smaller, more compact version of the bathrooms on the International Space Station. It's built into the floor of the Orion capsule and allows Artemis 2 astronauts some privacy while taking care of business. While the Orion spacecraft is larger than NASA's Apollo capsules, it's still cramped — the interior has been compared to that of two SUVs.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Saturday April 04, @04:56PM (2 children)
Should he US military become interested in real world supply chain risks [soylentnews.org], here's one!
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 05, @12:12AM (1 child)
Should [t]he US military become interested in real world supply chain risks, here's one!
Or if any government or agency actually becomes interested in real world supply chain risks over theatrics and posing, regardless of protecting specific vendors. Dr Andy Farnell wrote about a possible sea change in regards ICT in which we might soon see a return to a more honest evaluation of products and services [cybershow.uk]. We might. I guess it depends on how much nore the powers that be like access to bugdoors than actual security.
People are starting to say the quiet part out loud [propublica.org], yet again [congress.gov]. We've been here before. Way back over 25 years ago, the monopoly that M$ has was considered a national security risk just on its own and not counting the shoddy, full-of-holes software itself.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Sunday April 05, @12:56PM
This is the logic of CYA. If they criticize Microsoft then they are publicly acknowledging that they haven't done due diligence in their information security. The whole point of buying stuff like Microsoft is to absolve oneself of responsibility for the inevitable security breaches. It doesn't work legally if you look behind the curtain.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Thexalon on Saturday April 04, @05:38PM (1 child)
Just switch SCE to AUX [michaelgat.com], no more problems.
"Think of how stupid the average person is. Then realize half of 'em are stupider than that." - George Carlin
(Score: 2) by PinkyGigglebrain on Monday April 06, @10:29PM
If that doesn't work they should try reversing the polarity of the Neutron stream.
"Beware those who would deny you Knowledge, For in their hearts they dream themselves your Master."
(Score: 2) by fab23 on Saturday April 04, @05:38PM (1 child)
I don't know how many centuries ago, when they started to build ISS, NASA had mission / communication logs online (in text form) on their website. If I remember correctly, they also had some network issues with their Windows computer and also tried the usual steps with de-install and install again the network driver and also tried rewiring with I think BNC Ethernet cables to work around an issue with the RJ45 cables.
Back then they already used MS Outlook, and for communication they copied the *.pst files around and of course this caused to lost of emails in the Drafts folder. I don't remember that they had some others issue with Outlook in general or not.
(Score: 2) by fab23 on Saturday April 04, @07:24PM
Stupid me, please replace 'centuries' with 'decades', then it fits better into a real timeline.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 04, @06:47PM (2 children)
Hopefully, that shit isn't used in anything that is actually mission-critical.
(Score: 4, Informative) by mrpg on Saturday April 04, @09:30PM (1 child)
https://www.windriver.com/products/embedded/vxworks [windriver.com]
VxWorks: The World's #1
Real-Time Operating System
Real-Time OS for Mission-Critical Systems
Build high-performance, safety-certifiable embedded systems software, where 99.9999% reliability won’t do.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by anubi on Sunday April 05, @06:48AM
I liked Micrium's "Micro C/OS" RTOS.
It came with a pretty good sized book... The Source Code - In print! All in C.
https://www.amazon.com/s?k=microC%2FOS+micrium+book&crid=1K5CW2N4I4U5I&sprefix=microc%2Fos+micrium+book%2Caps%2C205&ref=nb_sb_noss [amazon.com]
I had hopes of coding a wirebonder with it. The original wirebonder was written in TMS9900 Assembler.
The timing is extremely critical.
The TMS9900 was no longer available. Our software guy rewrote the code in 68000 assembler.
I ended up redesigning the CPU card to use a 68HC000.
Code updates involved two 27C512.
When the software guy left ( to run an Asian Restaurant ! ), I had hopes of transcoding to C. I had just completed four years of study at a local college. A lot of programming, numerical techniques, data structures, linear matrix algebra, and auto mechanics. Every course they offered.
Then, wouldn't ya know it? The owner of the small company passed away and the manufacturing guy retired. The mathematician I worked alongside went to Germany. The guy who taught me how to use the DOS PADS PCB layout was laid off. Same happened with the mechanical guy I worked with so the stuff I made would fit properly in our machine. A lot of downsizing. That was the end of the glory days for me.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 2) by zocalo on Saturday April 04, @09:20PM
It's essentially an engineering testflight, right? You betcha they are doing TPS reports. Not quite as glamorous a job as you thought, is it? :)
UNIX? They're not even circumcised! Savages!
(Score: 5, Funny) by mrpg on Saturday April 04, @09:23PM
This would have NEVER been an issue with UBUNTU's systemd:
artemis-reentry.target depends on capsule-integrity.service
capsule-integrity.service depends on thermal-shield.service
thermal-shield.service depends on artemis-reentry.target
oxygen-scrubber.service - Lunar Oxygen Generation
[NOTE] The service finished successfully, therefore it is no longer running.
systemd[1]: gravity.service: Unit cannot be loaded: No such file or directory.
systemd[1]: Attempting to fallback to inertia.target...
systemd[1]: inertia.target: Unit is masked.
apr 3 00:12:58 artemis systemd[1]: Started systemd-oomd.service - outerspace Out-Of-Memory (OOM) Killer.
[ *** ] A stop job is running for 'Flush Space Toilet' (2min 45s / 99y)
apr 04 10:10:50 artemis systemd-resolved[427]: wlp0s40f5: Bus client set DNS server list to: 384.0.0.1, 192.168.1.4, 8.8.8.8
apr 04 23:50:07 artemis systemd[1]: Requested transaction contradicts existing jobs: Transaction for MoonManager-dispatcher.service/start is destructive (reboot.target has 'start' job queued, but 'stop' is included in transaction).
(Score: 3, Touché) by anubi on Sunday April 05, @04:24AM
https://lite.cnn.com/2026/04/04/science/artemis-2-toilet-malfunction [cnn.com]
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 2) by jb on Sunday April 05, @08:19AM
This is one of those situations where using anything more complex than mail(1) is just asking for something to go wrong.
(Score: 2) by The Vocal Minority on Sunday April 05, @09:28AM
...they could be using Kmail.
Seriously, KDE Devs, WTF.