“Two Apple iPads are packed on board the next unmanned resupply vehicle to fly to the space station, set for launch later this month,” Robert Z. Pearlman reports for collectSPACE.com. “And a stuffed toy doll of the red bird from Rovio Mobile’s ‘Angry Birds’ puzzle game will accompany the next three crew members to depart Earth for the ISS next month.”
“The iPads will augment Apple iPod music players already aboard the station, while the red Angry Bird toy will help by signaling to the launching cosmonauts and NASA astronaut that they have made it to space, when it starts to float,” Pearlman reports.
“‘The Russians are flying two iPads on the next Progress. They’re going to be used for entertainment purposes only,’ NASA spokesman Kelly Humphries told collectSPACE.com on Tuesday,” Pearlman reports. “The tablets will be the first of their type on the ISS, which is otherwise equipped with laptop computers, Apple iPods and even an iPhone. NASA is, however, assessing tablets for their possible future use in space.”
“There’s no word whether the iPads will arrive at the station pre-loaded with Angry Birds, the video game, but the space station crew will only need to wait a couple more weeks to be able to stage their own zero-g version,” Pearlman reports. “As revealed on Monday (Oct. 24) by cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov, a red Angry Bird doll will be aboard when he and two crewmates, Anatoli Ivanishin and Dan Burbank, lift off in the Soyuz TMA-22 spacecraft on Nov. 13 at 11:14 p.m. EST (0414 GMT Nov. 14). ‘According to the existing tradition, we take with us small charms,’ Shkaplerov said at a pre-flight press conference in Russia. He explained the custom of flying a toy as a ‘zero-g indicator.'”
Read more in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “BluefinPro” for the heads up.]