Moscow, we have a problem: Russia’s cosmonaut training center in Star City might need to upgrade its Soyuz spacecraft simulators to Windows 10.
Based on some snapshots tweeted by French astronaut Thomas Pesquet, it looks as if Russia’s space agency has been getting by with Microsoft Windows XP. And that became the source of a little levity when Pesquet encountered a simulated spaceflight alarm:
When your spacecraft does this, you know it's not a good day… pic.twitter.com/cYP0pDp6as
— Thomas Pesquet (@Thom_astro) February 2, 2016
https://twitter.com/Thom_astro/status/694952685083181057/photo/1
The wallpaper on the computer screen inside the Soyuz mockup is the signature look for Windows XP, which went out of fashion long ago.
To be fair, the world’s space agencies often stick with tried-and-true software even if it goes out of date, just because it takes so long to certify new equipment. The International Space Station’s laptops were switched over from XP to the Linux-based Debian 6 operating system less than three years ago.
Also, it’s important to point out that we’re just talking about simulation software here. The actual Soyuz flight control system does not run on XP, although it’s not immune from glitches.
Unfortunately, XP users can’t take advantage of Microsoft’s free Windows 10 upgrade – and budgets are getting tighter at the Russian space agency. Nevertheless, maybe there’ll be a way to bring the software up to date by the time Pesquet is launched to the station in November.
