Lenovo ThinkPads Arrive at International Space Station
A Russian rocket that arrived at the International Space Station (ISS) this summer delivered Lenovo ThinkPads to space.
The ThinkPad T61p installed in the ISS provides faster, lighter and more energy efficient notebooks to perform a full range of tasks.
The delivery continues a long-standing relationship ThinkPad has with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), but these are the first ThinkPads created by Lenovo to be used at the space station. All earlier NASA ThinkPads came from IBM.
Eventually there will be more than 100 ThinkPads on the space station and in NASA’s Space Shuttles, which will help do everything from steering the Space Shuttle to running robotics to providing streaming video.
Also, for the first time this year, every astronaut on the ground will be utilizing a ThinkPad T500 in their daily work. This initiative lowers training costs by allowing astronauts to become proficient at utilizing the most critical piece of hardware equipment they use in space, while they are on the ground.
ThinkPad has a long, proud history of providing the engineering excellence necessary to meet the challenges of computing in space. This latest delivery to the space station also demonstrated Lenovo’s ability to meet the manufacturing, logistics and testing challenges needed to meet – and exceed – NASA’s expectations.
Working in space requires NASA computers to undergo product testing far beyond that of even the most demanding terrestrial customers. Lenovo’s extensive experience with NASA gave it insight into how to rigorously test the ThinkPads yet still complete the process ahead of schedule. In fact, these ThinkPads were ready for flight 13 months faster than any previous PC, which in turn saved the customer – in this case the government and U.S. taxpayers – about $35 million.
In addition, Lenovo set up a homogeneous assembly line to solely focus on building the NASA order, a process that took months of planning to execute effectively and efficiently. That combination of engineering, innovation and service excellence is what makes this partnership a real achievement for Lenovo, said Fran O’Sullivan, senior vice president, Think Product Group.
The ThinkPads are so important that NASA astronauts rank them as the second most critical piece of equipment in space, after only the air pressurizer (and ahead of the toilet).
When the crew uses technology on the space station, it’s done through the notebook PCs, which makes Lenovo’s ThinkPads the most pervasively used piece of hardware in space.
October 1st, 2009 at 15:01
Does the laptop in the space stations use radiation hardened silicon processors???
October 2nd, 2009 at 06:31
Interesting that a T61p was chosen — it’s a beautiful machine with the 4:3 aspect ratio high-resolution Flexview display. It’s to this date (by far) my favorite laptop ever.
Boy I wish Lenovo would bring back a display like that for those of us stuck here on Earth…!
October 2nd, 2009 at 13:08
Thinkpad’s Rock!
October 2nd, 2009 at 23:26
#Mark Marat
To my knowledge last ThinkPad with Flexview displays were T60 with 15″ LCD panels.
October 5th, 2009 at 23:15
What OS are they running? Vista? XP? Linux? Solaris?
I’m pretty curious to know more about their computing infrastructure, and what kinds of programs they run.
October 6th, 2009 at 04:01
The first portables I recall were the GRiD Tempest, then a little later the GRiDcase 386. Thinkpads used in quantity were 755C, 760XD, and most recently the A31P, or more precisely model 2653-R5U. It may be awhile before I see one so I would like to ask if anyone knows the actual model number of the type T61P being flown?
October 9th, 2009 at 20:19
It is good to hear that Thinkpads from Lenovo is going to space. Congratulations! I can understand that this is very important for you and for Lenovo. I hope you continue the tradition of IBM, and build the best laptops on the planet.
I have an idea. Since you mentioned that you have “a homogeneous assembly line to solely focus on building the NASA order”, why don’t you sell these laptops to the general public also. I know that space applications require special electronics which you can discard for the public orders. You know that t61p is a legendary model despite the known memory issues (hopefully solved at the end) and people will really be interested in buying one. Of course, you should install the ever-wanted 4:3 Flexpanel (know the supply issues, but you can solve these) and a star on the lid to indicate that this is a special edition.
Long live Thinkpad!
October 10th, 2009 at 13:55
So what’s special about space? Outgassing? Radiation? No convection cooling? What differences were incorporated?
tOM