NASA Successfully Resolved the Outlook Issue with Artemis II

On Thursday, during the Artemis II mission to the Moon, commander Reid Wiseman encountered a tech hiccup that many of us can relate to: Microsoft Outlook was acting up. In a conversation broadcasted during NASA’s Artemis livestream, Wiseman informed Mission Control, “I also see that I have two Microsoft Outlooks and neither one of those are working.”

To resolve the issue, Mission Control had to remotely access Wiseman’s personal computing device (PCD), which is a Microsoft Surface Pro. During a press conference on Thursday, Artemis flight director Judd Frieling explained that NASA had sorted out the problem, noting, “This is not uncommon. We have this on-station all the time. You know, sometimes Outlook has issues getting configured, especially when you don’t have a network that’s directly connected. And so essentially we just had to reload his files on Outlook to get it working.”

NASA maintains communication with Artemis II through a combination of its Near Space Network and Deep Space Network, utilizing a network of antennas around the globe and satellites in orbit. As Artemis II travels further from Earth, Mission Control at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, must switch communications between these networks.

In addition to the Microsoft Surface Pro, the Artemis II crew is equipped with Nikon D5 DSLR cameras, a ZCube video encoder, and handheld GoPro cameras to capture footage for a documentary collaboration with Disney and National Geographic. The crew was also permitted to bring their phones along, which can be seen being tucked into their spacesuit pockets during the livestream.