A curious detail emerged from reports that data had been recovered from a hard disk wrecked in the 2003 Columbia space shuttle disaster that killed 11 astronauts…it was running the pre-Windows DOS operating system. No version was cited the AP report, posted on the MIT Technology Review site, so we don't know whether it was a Microsoft product or from a rival.

The drive could hold 340Mbytes, and so was relatively modern, but there is no reason why an old operating system would not have functioned well.

Curiously the data may not have been recoverable if a more modern operating system had been used because it might had been scattered across the disk, according  to Kroll Ontrack, the company that did the work. The drive casing had melted and the platters were damaged – but not where the data was.

It is surprising how low-tech space technology can be. Mission Control at Cape Canaveral, which conducted the first landing on the moon, looks impressive with its ranks of screens at a time when computers were a rarity. It is open to visitors now and looks much smaller than it seems on TV and many of the screens are visual-display units for video rather than computers.