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Kepler Recovers After 144 Hour "Glitch"

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the hate-when-that-happens dept.

coondoggie writes "There was likely a pretty big sigh of relief at NASA's Ames Research Center this week as the group's star satellite Kepler recovered from a glitch that took it offline for 144 hours. According to NASA the glitch happened March 14, right after the spacecraft issued a network interface card (NIC) reset command to implement a computer program update. During the reset, the NIC sent invalid reaction wheel data to the flight software, which caused the spacecraft to enter safe mode, NASA stated."

7 of 73 comments (clear)

  1. Proof of extraterrestrial life! by aardwolf64 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Alright, who hit F8 while it was booting up???

  2. Re:Hay guys I got this one! by LaminatorX · · Score: 4, Funny

    It's not like this stuff is rocket science.

    Oh, wait.

  3. Tech Support by Manos_Of_Fate · · Score: 4, Funny

    Did they try turning it off and then on again?

    --
    Isn't enough that I ruined a pony, making a gift for you?
    1. Re:Tech Support by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

      That's not nearly as easy as it sounds in orbit.

      Nothing sounds easy in a near vacuum.

  4. plugged in? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    Dell Tech Support: Hi! This is David from Colorado. How may I help you today?
    NASA: Hi, Yes: Our satellite keeps freezing up on reboot.
    Dell Tech Support: Allright let me pull up your information... ....
    Dell Tech Support: Ok, sir, let's see if we can try and troubleshoot it over the phone, if not then you will have to ship it to our repair techs
    NASA: ?????!?!?!?
    Dell Tech Support: Allright let's start by checking for connection cables. Is the satellite plugged in to the outlet?
    NASA: FUUUUUUUU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  5. WRT54G by twebb72 · · Score: 4, Funny

    Turns out the NIC was working just fine. They had to power cycle the WRT54G in Houston to get it to reconnect.

  6. Really long time by owlstead · · Score: 3, Funny

    Wow, that was longer than it took me to update my old W2K laptop to run Visual Studio 2003 :)