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Astronauts Might (Not) Have a Better Internet Connection Than You

Source: ReadWriteWeb

Nov 05, 2009

Summary

Long have we waited the day when ReadWriteWeb writers would have a reason to post a space-related geekout. We are pleased to tell you that the Internet has come to the International Space Station, and thus, we bring you the first installment of ReadWriteSpace.

The down and dirty deets are as follows: 3Mbps up and 10Mbps down speeds via a KU-band satellite. According to our late-night, Twitter-powered research, this beats more than a few Earthlings' connection speeds. To learn more about the hardware, servers, and how often the crew gets told to "just turn everything off then on again," read on.

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To be fair, we copped this information from an interview NASA's Tyson Tucker and Joey Crawford gave to CNET's Mark Harris. These two were the first IT guys responsible for ensuring uptime on the International Space Station (ISS), humans' first permanent outpost in the final frontier. They were not in the space station themselves, but rather in the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas.

Moving on to hardware, the space station houses 68 IBM ThinkPad A31 laptops and

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