While it’s unlikely that the temperature of outer space was the actual reason that an astronaut’s inbox froze, it is certainly an entertaining thought. The unresponsive inbox affected Commander Reid Wiseman aboard the recent moon-bound Artemis II mission. Wiseman contacted Mission Control in Houston about seven hours into the flight to report that his Microsoft Outlook email wasn’t working.
What followed was an interaction not unlike a remote employee’s conversation with the IT department, but from a much, much farther distance. Wiseman reported that his Outlook email was not working on his personal computing device (PCD), which is a specialized laptop or tablet the astronauts use onboard the spacecraft.
Wiseman asked, “If you want to remote in and check … those two Outlooks that would be awesome,” and Houston responded they would log in remotely and let him “know when we are done.” WIRED has an audio clip of the exchange. Internet wags wondered if something could simply be turned off, then back on again — the age-old fix — but in fact, Mission Control remoted in, reloading Outlook files to, er, relaunch the program.
