This month the International Space Station turned 20, and as a fitting mark of this anniversary, a European Space Agency astronaut Alexander Gerst has stumbled across a reminder of that long history and of how technology has progressed. This is a folder full of old floppy disks, as CNET has reported.
The International Space Station is a habitable artificial satellite located in low Earth orbit. The first part of the space station was launched into orbit in 1998, and the final module was completed in 2011. Despite the long history, the space station is expected to operate until 2028.
Facts about the International Space Station are impressive. It is the largest human-made body in low Earth orbit and it can sometimes be with the naked eye from Earth. The maximum crew is six people, and the current crew is three – called Expedition 57. The mass of the space station is 419,725 kilograms and it is 72.8 meters long.
Despite having undergone various technological developments, the discovery of the floppy disks allows from a contrast to be drawn with life on the station today and its past. Certainly astronaut Gerst was thrilled, as he tweeted: “I found a locker on the @Space_Station that probably hasn’t been opened for a while.” According to The Verge, in addition to a Norton’s Utilities for Windows 95 / 98, the folder also included a few disks labeled “Crew Personal Support Data Disk.”
