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The IBM ThinkPad A31p |
IBM ThinkPads first flew aboard the U.S. Space Shuttle
on Dec. 2, 1993 on the Shuttle Endeavour's flight
to repair the Hubble Space Telescope. Astronauts used
the ThinkPads 750s to view color images and sketches of
the telescope that were loaded on the computer's hard
drive.
The number of IBM ThinkPads used on a typical Space
Shuttle mission varies by year. In 1995, the average
number used was five, and in 1999 the average number
was nine. The year before, however, during John Glenn’s
historic return to space (STS-95), the U.S. Senator/astronaut
used two of the ThinkPads aboard the Shuttle Discovery for various experiments. Discovery carried 21 of the
IBM computers, which broke the existing record for
the most ThinkPads flown on a single mission. Most
of the ThinkPads were the older 755C model and a few
were the newer 760XD model.
Some 54 ThinkPads were launched into space during the
five Shuttle flights in 1998. Some of the ThinkPads made
multiple flights. In all, IBM ThinkPads have been on at
least 31 Shuttle flights in the 20th century and on a
few Russian Proton or Soyuz/Progress launches.
Including the ThinkPad 770 that was aboard Mir in
February 1999, approximately 10 ThinkPads were used
aboard the Russian space station. The United States,
European Space Agency, and the Russian Space Agency
have all launched ThinkPads as part of separate programs.
In 1999 there were three ThinkPad 750C notebooks remaining
in the depressurized Russian Spektr module on Mir,
and a fourth unit from Spektr was later returned to
Earth and repaired. (Mir left orbit
in 2001.)
As the 20th century drew to a close, the only notebooks
certified for long-term flight on the International Space
Station (ISS) were the IBM ThinkPad 760XD and the 755C.
Five 76OXDs and one additional 755C were placed on ISS
during the May 1999 shuttle mission (STS-96), and another
seven 76OXDs and one 755C were delivered on subsequent
flights. (In 2003, IBM ThinkPad A31p computers were
flown to the International Space Station for in-flight
testing. The A31p is scheduled to become the new ISS
Portable Computer System, replacing the ThinkPad 760XD.)
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