- Artemis II encountered technical issues with Microsoft Outlook on the first day of the mission.
- NASA Mission Control resolved the Outlook issue by remotely accessing the computer.
- Artemis II also faced challenges with the toilet, or Universal Waste Management System.
Artemis II zoomed past Earth’s atmosphere without a hitch. Then came the real challenge: opening Microsoft Outlook.
On Thursday, the first day of the mission’s planned 10-day journey around the moon, Reid Wiseman, the mission commander, reported issues accessing email on his computer. He asked NASA Mission Control for tech support during a livestream of the interaction.
“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 on the livestream.
After Wiseman flagged the issue, Mission Control said it could remotely access his system with permission.
Soon after, a member of Mission Control said, “We wanted to let Reid know we are done remoting into his PCD 1.” They added that the issue had been resolved and that the system would appear offline, as “expected.”
The personal computing device, or PCD, is how the crew accesses the internet during the flight and tracks its timeline, NASA said on the livestream. The device used on the mission is the MS Surface Pro, per an Artemis II factsheet.
Microsoft and NASA did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.
The mission also ran into a couple of other problems.
Artemis II mission specialist Christina Koch reported an issue with the Orion capsule’s toilet, known as the Universal Waste Management System.
“The toilet fan is reported to be jammed,” NASA spokesperson Gary Jordan said during mission commentary. “Now the ground teams are coming up with instructions on how to get into the fan and clear that area to revive the toilet for the mission.”
About an hour before the launch window opened, NASA briefly declared a “no-go” while investigating an issue with the flight termination system — a safety feature.