On the 24th of January this year, there was a ,computer problem' on board the space shuttle, as reported by CNN. Here is the text of the exchange that was recorded on NASA cable TV between the Johnson Space Centre (JSC) and the crew.

Crew: Urgent Johnson, we can't get a DOS prompt

JSC: Press C: enter
Crew: Heck, we're not familiar with all this
JSC: What screen are you looking at?
Crew: It says ,My Computer', and, er, various other icons
JSC: Click on ,Start' and then shut down
Crew: You click the ,Start' button to shut down?
JSC: Yeah. Isn't it obvious?
Crew: Somebody get me an aspirin
JSC: Just hit the damn ,Start' button
Crew: We can't do that. It didn't load a mouse
JSC: Didn't load any mouse at all?
Crew: Well, yeah, a PS/2 or something. But we don't have one of those
JSC: Okay. Press Alt + Esc
Crew: And what does that do?
JSC: It should help
Crew: Negative
JSC: Stand by, will replicate the problem down here
Crew: Roger
(long pause)
JSC: Okay then. Double click the MS-DOS icon
Crew: I don't have a mouse
JSC: Go to back-up
Crew: Which is what?
JSC: Dock with the Russians. They have a Unix Workstation you can borrow.
--- 

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