Ground control to Microsoft: Artemis 2 astronauts deal with Outlook hiccup in deep space

Bound for the Moon, astronauts aboard NASA’s Artemis 2 Orion spacecraft experienced a challenge familiar to many of us back here on terra firma: Microsoft Outlook.

Commander Reid Wiseman radioed Mission Control on the crew’s first day in space to report that he had two instances of Outlook running on his computer — a Microsoft Surface Pro — and neither seemed to be working. 

Like any good IT support team, Houston said it would jump in remotely and take a look. About an hour later, ground controllers reported they had resolved the issue and gotten Outlook open, though it would display as offline, which they said was expected.

The moment, captured on NASA’s livestream, quickly went viral. A Bluesky user clipped the exchange, writing, “I’m so sorry we’ve sent these souls to the moon and they’re using outlook?”

Outlook is part of the commercial off-the-shelf software NASA provides astronauts for scheduling, personal communications and other routine tasks. The spacecraft’s primary flight systems run on separate, radiation-hardened hardware.

The Outlook glitch wasn’t the crew’s only mundane challenge. Shortly after launch, the toilet fan jammed, though ground teams managed to fix that, too.

We contacted Microsoft for comment and a rep said they’d let us know if the company had anything to say. At least we know the message went through.