WGA Crashes Space Station Computers?

It’s nice to have redundant systems but when all three redundant computers fail you know you’re in trouble. This is the predicament facing residents of the International Space Station. Luckily, if their computer problems can’t be fixed the Shuttle Atlantis is currently docked and can bring crews home.

The computers which are failing control the orientation of the space station which is critical for power generation. NASA’s Station Manager Michael Suffredini claims nothing has changed recently in either software or hardware but I have my own theories.

I think one of three things have caused the crashes

1) The Russian based computers have been infected with spyware. I’m sure as bored as folks on the space station get who knows what web sites they visit.

2) Tuesday’s Windows update caused the failure because Microsoft didn’t tested their changes on computers required to control solar panels while in orbit.

3) The Russian computers failed WGA(Windows Genuine Advantage) verification and won’t reboot to Windows.

While these are just theories but I did see a similar problem reported by Engadget; “Russian ATM runs unactivated copy of Windows”.

Seriously though, I’m just very glad that Atlantis is available for a rescue in case the computer problems aren’t resolved. This could have been a tragic situation.