JAPAN SUCCESSFULLY linked a pair of satellites twice last summer, the first ever such outer space maneuver conducted via remote control from Earth. Though the satellites will have enough power to conduct further testing, additional experiments will be temporarily halted from around December. Yoichi Fujita, spokesman of the National Space Development Agency, said the agency has yet to address the Y2K problem as it relates to control computers on the ground, although the two orbiting satellites are free from the so-called millennium bug. Fujita said testing of robot arms mounted on the satellites and a third rendezvous will be among other experiments to be carried out by late November. On Nov. 28, 1997, Japan successfully launched the two satellites, nicknamed Orihime (Vega) and Hikoboshi (Altair). A series of experiments under zero gravity were conducted in anticipation of the need for remote-controlled docking of supply shipments ferried by unmanned spacecraft to the space stations of the future. The Y2K problem is an outgrowth of an old computer programming technique in which years were labeled for record-keeping purposes only by their final two digits, such as 99 for 1999. An unknown number of computers are expected to malfunction when the date changes to 2000, which some computers might interpret as 1900, instead of the start of the new millennium. http://www.msnbc.com/news/247882.asp

-- Homer Beanfang (Bats@inbellfry.com), September 09, 1999

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Please delete, posted wrong article.

-- Homer Beanfang (Bats@inbellfry.com), September 09, 1999.