![]() Montalbano added that NASA would work to “better understand what happened and then take some lessons learned. Though, he noted that temporary losses in communications have occurred before, due to systems upgrades on the ground or missed contact with one of the satellites NASA uses to maintain two-way communications between the ISS and mission control. (Clockwise, from top left: Perseverance rover. The temperature at Houston’s Intercontinental Airport early that day was 17F (-8C)the coldest temperature there in 32 years. Temperatures near 60F are more typical this time of year. ![]() He noted the outage marked the first time that NASA has activated the backup control hardware at Johnson Space Center’s Building 30, which is home to mission control. NASA's Mars missions will go offline during a temporary communications blackout in October 2021. According to news reports, Dallas reached a low of 4F (-16C) on February 15the coldest temperature the city has seen since 1989. It took about an hour and a half to transition to using that backup system, which is designed for use during hurricane season or in the event of a weather outage, Montalbano said. “In preparation for that we have the backup command and control system that we would use if we have to close the center for a weather emergency.” “We knew this (the upgrade work) was going on,” Montalbano said. The outage was triggered by some “reconfiguration” that took place as part of that process, Montalbano said. The issue occurred as the mission control center was undergoing some preplanned upgrades to its power systems. It did not affect flight controllers, or the rotating crew of NASA employees who constantly monitor the ISS from consoles in the main mission control room .īut the outage did affect the hardware that provides key communications, including voice contact and telemetry, or data about the space station’s pressure levels, power and position. The outage impacted only the first floor of the mission control building, Montalbano said. It was purely a ground problem,” he said, adding that NASA was able to communicate with the crew via Russian systems within 20 minutes after the outage began. At no time were the astronauts aboard the ISS in any danger, according to Montalbano. The outage occurred Tuesday morning and lasted about 90 minutes, according to ISS Program Manager Joel Montalbano. A brief power outage at NASA’s mission control center in Houston caused a voice communications blackout with the International Space Station and forced the space agency to rely on backup systems for the first time.
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