Internet beams out into space (BBC News)

[Posted January 31, 2003 by ris]

BBC News looks at computers in space. NASA plans for each spacecraft and satellite to some day have their own net address. "To test the technology the Columbia space shuttle was fitted with an embedded PC that has a 233 MHz processor, 128 MB of RAM and a solid-state 144 MB hard drive. The computer is running Red Hat, a version of the Linux operating system, and is maintaining a connection with the Goddard Space Flight Center which will to try to contact the onboard PC more than 140 times over the duration of the shuttle mission STS-107." Thanks to Henrik Storner

Shuttle Columbia crashed today

Posted Feb 1, 2003 18:45 UTC (Sat) by jmshh (guest, #8257) [Link]

For those who didn't got the news of the day: Shuttle Columbia broke up
and crashed just minutes before landing in a height of about 60km (about
65000 feet) above Dallas (TX). This was just after 9am local time (14:00
UTC). All seven Astronauts (Six Americans and one Israeli) are believed
to have died.

The reason for this is as yet unknown, but a terrorist attack seems
unlikely. It might have been caused by a ceramic tile of the heat shield
which was lost during take-off, hitting the wing.

Condolences to their families. Luckily not everything at the cutting edge
is as dangerous.