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                 AirDrop Proved Handy on NASA's Demo-2 Mission

   Josh Centers

   On 2 August 2020, NASA's Demo-2 mission completed successfully when the
   SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule carrying astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug
   Hurley safely splashed down in the Gulf of Mexico. But the crew had a
   few IT problems to resolve before that happened.

   The Dragon capsule during a practice recovery. Image courtesy of
   [1]NASA.

   The Crew Dragon is a thoroughly modern space capsule with touchscreen
   controls and documentation stored on iPads (the astronauts wear special
   gloves that work with touch screens). But at one point, the [2]SpaceX
   timeline app flaked out on Behnken's iPad. SpaceX had Hurley take
   screenshots of his timeline and send them to Behnken using AirDrop as a
   backup.

   While this (thankfully) wasn't an Apollo 13-level malfunction, it goes
   to show how useful some core Apple features we take for granted can be.
   Surprisingly, Google only recently added a similar capability to its
   Android mobile operating system, called [3]Nearby Share.

References

   Visible links
   1. https://images.nasa.gov/details-KSC-20170607-PH_SPX01_0001
   2. https://spaceexplored.com/2020/08/03/spacex-ipad-troubleshooting-video/
   3. https://www.blog.google/products/android/nearby-share/

   Hidden links:
   4. https://tidbits.com/wp/../uploads/2020/08/Dragon-recovery-practice.jpg

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