Six astronauts cut off as Nasa lost contact with International Space Station

Communications with the International Space Station and Nasa briefly went offline.

According to Nasa, the loss of contact occurred during an update of the stations communications control software. The crew was eventually able to regain communications by switching controls to a backup computer.

During the communications blackout, the station's team was only able to communicate with Earth when orbiting above Russian ground stations every 90 minutes. Communications were down for about a three hour period in total.

The International Space Station was housing a six member crew at the time of the disconnection. Three Russian cosmonauts, two US astronauts, and a Canadian space explorer are reported to currently be on the station.

This isn't the first time that the space station and its crew have lost communications with Nasa. In 2010, the station and Nasa lost communications for about an hour.

Both cases highlight the annoyance of software updates. Whether you're working IT for a start-up or a scientist on the International Space Station, software updates are a chore.

Of course, if you do work IT at a start-up the chance that your update leaves you stranded in space is rather slim. That being said, if you do work at a start-up that could possibly leave you stranded in space: find new work immediately.

19 Feb 2013