NASA Fixes Outlook Glitch on Artemis II
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- NASA resolved a Microsoft Outlook glitch on commander Reid Wiseman's personal computing device (a Microsoft Surface Pro) during the Artemis II mission on Thursday, after Wiseman reported "I have two Microsoft Outlooks and neither one of those are working" during the livestream.
- Artemis flight director Judd Frieling said the issue is "not uncommon," explaining Outlook had trouble configuring without a directly connected network and that Mission Control had to remotely reload Wiseman's Outlook files to fix it.
- NASA's Mission Control at Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, must shift Artemis II's communications between the Near Space Network and Deep Space Network — a patchwork of ground antennas and orbiting satellites — as the spacecraft moves farther from Earth.
- The Artemis II crew's gear also includes Nikon D5 DSLR cameras, a ZCube video encoder, and handheld GoPro cameras being used to film content for a Disney and National Geographic documentary, with personal phones stowed in their spacesuit pockets.
Why it matters: A mundane Outlook crash on a $4 billion lunar mission underscores how dependent Artemis II remains on ground-based troubleshooting and the complex Near Space/Deep Space Network handoffs at Mission Control — even a software-config issue on one crew member's Surface Pro required remote intervention from Houston.
