NASA battles failure of space station computer — says the headline.
So what’s with the first three words of the story?
| U.S. and Russian flight controllers worked to fully restore computers aboard the International Space Station on Thursday after a system crash that could force the $100 billion outpost’s crew back to Earth.
NASA said it did not regard the problem as critical and believed it was a long way from having to contemplate abandoning the space station, a 16-nation project. But the U.S. space agency made plans to keep the visiting space shuttle Atlantis attached to the station for an extra day to help steer the massive complex if the Russian computers, which control navigation, continue to malfunction. |
Russian computers, eh?
Maybe somebody should inform the nations of the world that international space projects are hereby declared obsolete and out of vogue.
Then again, maybe the conspiracy theorists could “figure out” that the Russians decided this was a good time for the hidden virus to kick in. NASA and the rest of the internationals abandon the station. The Russians decide to mount a rescue mission of their own. Problem fixed. And the space station becomes the new crown jewel of the international Russian space program. Something like that. 😉
| “We’re still struggling to understand what the real problem is here,” said NASA’s associate administrator for spaceflight, Bill Gerstenmaier.
“There’s an extremely remote chance that this problem would lead to abandoning the space station,” Gerstenmaier said at a briefing. “We’re still a long way away from where we would be to de-man space station.” |
Wait. Isn’t there a woman on board? So they’d leave her to fend for herself. Somebody better tell NOW.
Hold it just a minute! This isn’t a Russian conspiracy, it’s a NOW plot! “Women of the world stars, unite!”
Update: May 15 at 7:12 am — “It’s not our fault!”
| A source inside the Russian space agency has told ABC News that there could be a “fatal flaw” with the station’s main computer.
After working for a couple of days, the Russians still have no idea what the problem is, and they are pointing the finger at the Americans. They say that setting up the solar array sent electromagnetic interference into the computer, shutting it down. |
So maybe it isn’t NOW after all. Or else they’re manipulating the Russians. 😛
Whatever.
At least Drudge has a neat picture right now:
Update: June 16 at 3:45 pm — Space station computer crash a mystery:
| Crews aboard the space shuttle Atlantis and the International Space Station revived the third and final part of the station’s prime computer network on Saturday and scoured the complex for the cause of the crash.
[…] The computers are German-built but have Russian software. |
Obviously nobody has pointed them to this blog.
Yet.
Oh well.
😀