Space Shuttle downed by millennium style bug

THE US SPACE SHUTTLE has a computer bug which might keep it from flying until next year.

According to Reuters, Nasa boffins are a little worried about what the shuttle's computer will be thinking about when the clock tolls the beginning of 2007.

Apparently, the shuttle's computers were not designed to fly through a year-end change over and do not reset to day one like the clocks on ground-based systems. The shuttle computers will think that January 1 is just day 366 of the year.

Not only will this cause problems if the astronauts attempt to use the computer to buy a book on eBay, but, if the shuttle's navigation systems are out of sync with ground control, it might get a bit confused and land in the wrong place.

Rather than fix the shuttle's aging computer system, Nasa has decided that it is safer to hold the next flight until January or speed it up so that the beast is not in space on New Year's Eve. µ

L'INQ
reuters