This week back in 1991, the world witnessed a monumental moment – the first email sent from space.
While some of us were still wrestling with dial-up connections and waiting for our AOL mail to load, astronauts aboard the Space Shuttle Atlantis were casually sending emails from outer space. Talk about taking remote work to a whole new level.
Mission STS-43 astronauts Shannon Lucid and James C. Adamson, armed with an Apple Macintosh Portable computer (and we thought working from our laptops was cool), sent the first ever email from space.
The message read:
‘Hello Earth! Greetings from the STS-43 Crew. This is the first AppleLink from space. Having a GREAT time, wish you were here,…send cryo and RCS! Hasta la vista, baby,…we’ll be back!’
I mean, if I was floating around in zero gravity, I’d probably also sign off my emails with ‘Hasta la vista, baby’!
This remarkable feat was achieved using the AppleLink online service. The software on the Macintosh was specially configured to connect to NASA’s communication system, allowing the Shuttle to interface with Apple’s proprietary network from space. The Macintosh Portable itself only had minor modifications to operate in space. And here we are in 2023, getting frustrated when our Wi-Fi drops out for a second.
As business owners, we can take inspiration from this historic event. If an email can be sent from space with early ’90s technology, surely we can overcome whatever challenges our businesses face today, right?
Whether it’s innovating our products, improving our services, or simply figuring out how to stop Gary in accounting from replying-all to every company-wide email!
#TechHistory #SpaceEmail #HastaLaVista