Few issues are extra irritating than a gradual, laggy laptop computer, and I can’t think about having to place up with one whereas residing and dealing aboard an area station. And since even astronauts aren’t proof against the gradual grind of growing old work laptops, NASA is planning a giant improve.
The Expedition 74 crew just lately reviewed a station-wide laptop improve deliberate for the weekend, beginning with the alternative of community servers and adopted by activation of “new, extra highly effective laptop computer computer systems” aboard the Worldwide Area Station.
Which HP laptop computer goes to house?
NASA
The quick replace from NASA didn’t reveal the identify of the {hardware}, however a NASA spokesperson later confirmed to The Verge that the station’s subsequent laptop computer platform is the HP ZBook G9 Cellular Workstation. This mannequin can be changing the older HP ZBook Fury G2 laptops already in use on the ISS, with the primary batch of the newer techniques having launched again in October 2025.
The improve is greater than only a routine gear swap. Whereas the ISS nonetheless runs on sensible, mission-tested {hardware}, trendy orbital life additionally includes science workloads, imaging, communications, logistics, and system monitoring— all of which can profit from extra succesful machines.
How highly effective are these laptops?
The Worldwide Area Station NASA
HP’s new laptops are highly effective workstation-grade techniques. The customized ISS configuration options an Intel Core Extremely 9 vPro HX processor, an Nvidia RTX Professional Blackwell GPU, 128GB of DDR5 reminiscence, and 4 2TB NVMe SSDs. Whereas these are specs you received’t generally discover on a consumer-grade laptop computer, HP states that these new machines additionally want a specifically designed NASA-exclusive AC/DC energy adapter, for the reason that ISS primarily runs on DC energy and normal Earthbound AC chargers wouldn’t work in orbit.
Greater than 100 HP workstations are already in energetic use on the ISS, together with microgravity-compatible printers, and the G9 machines characterize the third technology of HP compute platforms onboard. With the station set to be decommissioned in 2030, this is likely to be one among, if not the final, massive PC refresh earlier than the deliberate deorbit.
