On Thursday, Artemis II astronaut Reid Wiseman flagged to NASA Mission Control he was having issues with email on his computer during NASA’s livestream of the mission.
“I also see that I have two Microsoft Outlooks, and neither one of those are working. If you want to remote in and check Optimus and those two Outlooks, that would be awesome,” Wiseman said, while the ship was less than 90,000 miles from Earth.
Mission Control, like any other IT department on Earth, then said they would tackle the problem by accessing his computer remotely. Soon after, the IT whizzes at NASA got a handle on the problem and checked in.
“We wanted to let Reid know we are done remoting into his PCD 1,” a member of Mission Control said on the livestream, referring to Wiseman’s “personal computing device.” “We were able to resolve the issue for Optimus, and for Outlook, we were able to get it open. It will show offline, which is expected.”
The Artemis II astronauts are using Microsoft Surface Pro devices for mission operations, storing and managing photos and video, as well as for “office apps,” according to a NASA fact sheet.
The tech difficulties, although seemingly mundane, exploded online as some poked fun at Microsoft while others pointed out how relatable the incident made the astronauts seem, despite the extraordinary mission they are on.
“What do you mean, I have to log in to Outlook on my way to the moon?” wrote one commenter on X.
Another poster, Yael Demedetskaya, a data architect and data scientist at Columbia University’s Department of Psychiatry, may have put it best.
“Humanity is returning to the Moon. Outlook is still Outlook.”
During a press conference with NASA officials Thursday, Judd Frieling, the Artemis II ascent flight director, said the issue with Microsoft wasn’t surprising.
“Sometimes Outlook has issues getting configured, especially when you don’t have a network that’s directly connected,” said Frieling.
To fix the issue, NASA had to reload files on Outlook to get the program working properly again, he added.
As Microsoft’s tech experiences glitches in space, here on Earth, the company is pouring tens of billions of dollars each quarter into AI data centers and cloud infrastructure as it races to keep up with rivals. The company has invested $13.8 billion in OpenAI amid the broader Big Tech arms race to dominate AI. Collectively, Microsoft, Amazon, Alphabet, and Meta are projected to spend roughly $650 billion on AI infrastructure in 2026 alone.
Going back to the moon
The Microsoft tech glitches come as Artemis II is barreling toward the moon at more than 6,000 miles per hour. If all is successful, it will be the first time in more than 54 years that humans have ventured this far from Earth. The four-person crew, three from NASA and one from the Canadian Space Agency, launched on April 1 with a plan to loop around the moon. On the trip back, the ship will be propelled by the moon’s gravitational force in a free-return slingshot maneuver that will bring them back to Earth at an expected date of April 10.
Although the astronauts won’t be landing on the moon, they will, during the 10-day mission, be taking high-resolution photos of both the Earth and the far side of the moon, which no human has seen in person since Apollo 17 in 1972, the last mission to the moon. China, for its part, landed the unmanned Chang’e-4 on the dark side of the moon in 2019 and then landed on the dark side of the moon again with the Chang’e-6 in 2024, returning the first-ever collected samples from that side of the moon. The overarching goal of the mission is to collect data to help astronauts once again land on the moon with the Artemis IV and V missions slated for 2027 and 2028, respectively. The Artemis program ultimately aims to establish a base on the moon, near the south lunar pole and launch surface missions once a year.
“We go to the Moon not as momentary visitors, but rather as bold pioneers committed to the ongoing exploration of the lunar surface and, for the first time ever, the Moon’s South Pole region,” reads Artemis II’s reference guide.
Still, problems with Microsoft Outlook aren’t the only thing the Artemis II astronauts are dealing with. Within hours of launching, NASA spokesperson Gary Jordan flagged yet another issue during the mission’s live commentary that showed the crew really is human, too.
“The toilet fan is reported to be jammed,” Jordan said, according to Space.com.
