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Space Station Astronauts Gain Internet Access

cyclone96 writes "Internet access on the International Space Station went live this morning. The crew now has full browsing capability via a special LAN and the Ku-band data link on the Tracking and Data Relay Satellite network, as described in the NASA press release. Flight Engineer T. J. Creamer used the access to post the first tweet from orbit about 7 hours ago. Previous astronaut tweets had been posted by a third party on the ground via email."

43 of 201 comments (clear)

  1. Great... by Pojut · · Score: 3, Insightful

    ...now they are gonna be so busy lolcatting and 4channing it up that nothing is gonna get done.

    GG.

    1. Re:Great... by Shatteredstar · · Score: 5, Funny

      Or playing WoW. "Sorry guys I can't raid tonight, gotta go do a spacewalk to fix a solar panel."

      --
      I do what I must because of what I must do.
    2. Re:Great... by Pojut · · Score: 4, Funny

      Or playing WoW. "Sorry guys I can't do the spacewalk to fix the solar panel, got a raid tonight."

      fixed :D

    3. Re:Great... by Hylandr · · Score: 5, Funny

      Fire up EVE ONLINE !! From SPACE !!

      --
      ~ People that think they are better than anyone else for any reason are the cause of all the strife in the world.
    4. Re:Great... by happy_place · · Score: 2, Funny

      Don't let'em set up their own web server. They probably don't want the spacestation slashdotted...

      --
      http://www.beanleafpress.com
    5. Re:Great... by Skuld-Chan · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Can you imagine the latency?

    6. Re:Great... by mcgrew · · Score: 2

      Most of the astronauts are nerds. How long before they're posting to slashdot from outer space?

    7. Re:Great... by ArsonSmith · · Score: 3, Funny

      SPACE POST!!!

      --
      Paying taxes to buy civilization is like paying a hooker to buy love.
    8. Re:Great... by DJ+DeFi · · Score: 2, Funny

      Is that like playing the Sims on Earth?

      --
      You cannot warp because you are warp scrambled.
  2. ISO country code by logophage · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Out of curiosity, is there an ISO country code for low Earth orbit?

    1. Re:ISO country code by garcia · · Score: 2, Funny

      Yeah, WOY as in We Own You.

    2. Re:ISO country code by sakdoctor · · Score: 4, Funny

      Get your .co.moon domain name today!
      Grab your name before someone squats on your moon.

    3. Re:ISO country code by Dancindan84 · · Score: 4, Informative

      No, but EO (earth orbit) and LO (low orbit) are both available.

      http://www.iso.org/iso/iso-3166-1_decoding_table

      --
      "Always forgive your enemies; nothing annoys them so much." - Oscar Wilde
    4. Re:ISO country code by amicusNYCL · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I think "HI" or "UP" would be appropriate.

      --
      "Our two-party system is like a bowl of shit looking at itself in a mirror." - Lewis Black
    5. Re:ISO country code by sconeu · · Score: 2, Insightful

      It's the "International Space Station". Seems to me that iss.int would be good.

      --
      General Relativity: Space-time tells matter where to go; Matter tells space-time what shape to be.
    6. Re:ISO country code by ehiris · · Score: 4, Funny

      HI should be reserved for Dutch-style coffee shops.

    7. Re:ISO country code by IdleTime · · Score: 2, Funny

      I-can-see-russia-from-my-space-station is also available!

      --
      If you mod me down, I *will* introduce you to my sister!
    8. Re:ISO country code by DigiShaman · · Score: 2, Informative

      There are many moons. Earth's would be called .luna

      --
      Life is not for the lazy.
  3. Space, the final frontier by gmuslera · · Score: 4, Funny

    where no botnet/porn/rickrolling has gone before.

  4. Infection in 3.. 2.. by TubeSteak · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Remember the last time(s) the Space Station's laptops got infected?

    --
    [Fuck Beta]
    o0t!
    1. Re:Infection in 3.. 2.. by Magic5Ball · · Score: 3, Informative

      RTFA: "During periods when the station is actively communicating with the ground using high-speed Ku-band communications, the crew will have remote access to the Internet via a ground computer. The crew will view the desktop of the ground computer using an onboard laptop and interact remotely with their keyboard touchpad."

      It's difficult, but not impossible, to spread malware via RDP or VNC or X or whatever.

      --
      There are 1.1... kinds of people.
    2. Re:Infection in 3.. 2.. by 222 · · Score: 2, Informative

      They have remote control of a PC at mission control. Other than screen data / mouse & keyboard input, no communication is done directly with ISS.

  5. First email by SnarfQuest · · Score: 5, Funny

    Dear sirs:

    I am the son of the Eternal Living God of Mars, who was recently assinated by opposition forces. I cincerely need you help to transfer 5,000,000 Gomlets (Five million gromlets) from my planet to yours...

    --
    Who would win this election: Andrew Weiner vs Andrew Weiner's weiner.
  6. Can it stream YouTube? by ICLKennyG · · Score: 5, Funny

    But the internet is provided through a contract with Verizon Wireless, the $49.99Million/mo 'Unlimited' plan includes 100Mb of data 25k/25k transfer speeds and 1 email account.

  7. So they RDP to a ground computer.... by jpedlow · · Score: 2, Informative

    Great, they RDP to a ground computer and go about their way. 3 problems I can forsee: 1. Somewhat laggy screen redraw 2. Possible RDPviewer remote code exploits? Then there'll be the first goatxe in space. 3. Line of sight problems, how is the handoff handled once the station goes over the horizon? Cool, though, glad to hear they've got the capability... Lets get them 100meg access, the RIAA and MPAA cant get them in SPACE!

    1. Re:So they RDP to a ground computer.... by dreamchaser · · Score: 4, Informative

      I know you're joking and yes I found it funny. You gave me a chuckle. I just wanted to point out that they only use RDP when the link is being used for voice/video/data communication between the ISS and the ground. The rest of the time they can use it like any other LAN based Internet, meaning they can use their personal laptops without resorting to RDP.

  8. First tweet by elrous0 · · Score: 3, Informative

    Still no aliens. Keeping vigilant.

    --
    SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
    1. Re:First tweet by SnarfQuest · · Score: 5, Funny

      Still no aliens. Please send more people with large heads. Definately no brain eating aliens here.

      --
      Who would win this election: Andrew Weiner vs Andrew Weiner's weiner.
  9. That Explains the Chatroom Comment this Morning: by BJ_Covert_Action · · Score: 4, Funny

    When I posted, "a/s/l check?" to 'Fun Single's this morning I got: "45/m/Rp = 6714 km, i = 51.6419 degrees. Please chat with me, it's really lonely up here," as a response.

  10. Space tweets? by BenoitRen · · Score: 5, Insightful

    So they finally get Internet access, and one of the first things they use it for is a tweet on Twitter? Talk about useless.

    1. Re:Space tweets? by Grygus · · Score: 4, Insightful

      When funding is on the line, PR becomes important work.

  11. Countdown to... by Zordak · · Score: 5, Funny
    Yesterday:

    Houston, please repeat. Right. Yes, the new solar panel has been successfully installed. ISS out.

    Today:

    hstn, lol wut?1? ya we pwnd sol pan1 suxrz1!!

    --

    Today's Sesame Street was brought to you by the number e.
  12. Re:what? still no /. response from space? by RorschachUK · · Score: 3, Funny

    Maybe the ISS has already been slashdotted... watch out below!

  13. Terrible idea by DoofusOfDeath · · Score: 4, Funny

    In a week it's going to look like a snow globe in there!

    1. Re:Terrible idea by Leafheart · · Score: 4, Funny

      Why do you think they packed extra socks this time?

      --
      --- "When you gotta do something wrong. You gotta do it right. (Fighter)"
  14. RFC1149 by Sponge+Bath · · Score: 4, Funny

    I guess the vacuum of space was too much of a challenge to overcome with RFC1149 IP datagrams.

  15. Re:Latency? by amicusNYCL · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The latency probably isn't as bad as one would expect. Sure, it seems far, but it's a straight shot. Also, a link between US and Europe would be significantly farther.

    --
    "Our two-party system is like a bowl of shit looking at itself in a mirror." - Lewis Black
  16. Re:Latency? by antifoidulus · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I shudder to think what kind of mess porn in space would leave.... Nothing quite like floating around in day old cosmonaut cum...

  17. Re:Yes, but ... by marcansoft · · Score: 4, Informative

    The space station is at most 460km above the Earth. Not counting bouncing around support satellites, the lag is only going to be a millisecond or two. People have this misconception that the ISS is far from the Earth, while in reality it's not that high up.

    Even if they have to bounce through a satellite in GEO (which is some 100 times farther away than the ISS and the farthest you're going to get for comms), that's, say, 300ms Earth-GEO-ISS, so the total ping time would be 600ms. No good for Counter-Strike, but still quite tolerable.

  18. Wasted opportunity by Evildonald · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I can't believe with all that time they've got up there, they wasted their first tweet not writing

    That's one small tweet for man. One giant tweet for mankind.

    1. Re:Wasted opportunity by ehud42 · · Score: 2, Funny

      Which after years of controversy and intense packet analysis would finally be corrected as "That's one small tweet for a man. One giant tweet for mankind".

      --
      I'm in my right mind and I have the answer to everything!
  19. Online Ordering by crsuperman34 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Thank you for your online order; Online Pizza Delivery status: "6-12 months, Pending Space Shuttle availability; NEW click here for 2 day super saver shipping"

  20. Re:In space by Ipeunipig · · Score: 2, Funny

    I did find it ironic that the "first" internet usage in space was from a man named Creamer.