Lost in Space: Artemis 2 Astronauts Navigate Outlook Hiccup in the Void

Updated below with details from NASA press conference.

Embarking on a mission to the Moon, astronauts aboard NASA’s Artemis 2 Orion spacecraft faced a familiar challenge that many of us encounter on Earth – Microsoft Outlook.

Commander Reid Wiseman contacted Mission Control on the crew’s first day in space to report that he had two instances of Outlook running on his Microsoft Surface Pro computer, both of which appeared to be malfunctioning.

Responding swiftly, the Houston team offered remote assistance to troubleshoot the issue. Approximately an hour later, ground controllers confirmed that they had resolved the problem and successfully opened Outlook, albeit in offline mode as expected.

This incident, captured on NASA’s livestream, quickly gained traction online. A user on Bluesky humorously remarked, “I’m so sorry we’ve sent these souls to the moon and they’re using Outlook?”

Outlook is among the commercial off-the-shelf software provided by NASA to astronauts for scheduling, personal communications, and other routine tasks, while the spacecraft’s critical flight systems operate on separate, radiation-hardened hardware.

Update: Judd Frieling, the Artemis 2 ascent flight director, acknowledged that the Outlook issue was not uncommon during a press conference. He explained that the app can encounter configuration issues in the absence of a direct network connection, which the ground team resolved by reloading Wiseman’s files in Outlook.

The Outlook hiccup was not the crew’s sole mundane challenge. Shortly after liftoff, a toilet fan malfunctioned, but ground teams efficiently rectified the situation.

Microsoft was contacted for a statement regarding the incident, and a representative indicated that they would provide a response if deemed necessary. Assurance was given that the message had been successfully conveyed.

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