SPACEX SENT NASA ASTRONAUTS INTO ORBIT USING LINUX

[ssfc72]

https://futurism.com/the-byte/spacex-nasa-astronauts-linux

Very interesting, short article.

[fox]

I wonder what distro they were using?

[Jason]

Cool. I remember reading somewhere before about the ISS using Linux as it mentions in this article. I've heard that a lot of scientists use Linux in research applications maybe just in supercomputer data crunching. The Wikipedia article on Linux notes that as of 2017, all supercomputers on the 500 list run some variant of Linux. The same entry notes that Linux is used a lot in space applications including within JPL.

It's pretty neat when you hear another siting of Linux in the wild.

[Jason]

I wonder what distro they were using?

I wouldn't expect it to be a distro we're familiar with, although I think Debian makes an embedded version of Linux. I'd expect they'd create their own customized version.

It took a bit of searching but I finally found this 2017 article that says, the Falcon rockets use "Multiple COTS computers, custom Linux 3.2 with real-time patches" in a chart on page 6. That version must be referring to the kernel. Page 13 refers to the rockets using a "highly customized version of Linux" on page 12 and on page 13 has more information about the kernel and software:

Only those functionalities needed for the SpaceX implementation have been carried from the original kernel - only around 10-15 percent of original code. SpaceX has also made their own mission-specific modificationsto the kernel, and custom drivers have also been added. The kernel has been carefully evaluated, especially focusing on the scheduler performance

...

SpaceX ï¬,ight software developers use a lot of standard GNU tools such as gcc, gdb,ftrace, netfilter, and iptables. SpaceX includes extensive metrics gathering to their software, including but not limited to performance, network utilization, and CPU load.