Astronauts receive Hololens in space today, uses revealed

Recently it was revealed that Microsoft teamed up with NASA to send it’s HoloLens wearable into space. Today that became a reality, with two lone astronauts receiving over 7,700 pounds of supplies, including food, science experiments, and two Microsoft HoloLens headsets.

Astronauts Scott Kelly and Mikhail Kornienko are spending over a year aboard the International Space Station in a scientific experiment detailing exactly how long missions in space can affect the human body.

In a live interview earlier today, the guys over at Popular Science got to ask exactly what uses the HoloLens could have for them as they finish their year long mission in space. According to Scott Kelly:

You know I actually got the opportunity to try that out before I launched, and it seems like there are certain capabilities that would be good for us onboard the space station. One would be, you know right now we look at the computer or an iPad to look at procedures. And if you could have a procedure right in your field-of-view, something that was command-able with your voice, you know where you could scroll through the different steps, that would be helpful. It also has this capability where somebody on the ground perhaps could be looking basically at what you’re looking at, and be able to write in your field of view. So let’s say we’re working on a piece of hardware, and we’re not that familiar with it, but we have an expert on the ground, you know that person could basically see what we’re seeing and make annotations, point to things, and kind of lead us through a particular activity. You know that’s one of the many capabilities of that, or similar hardware, that we’re excited about.

These are features that we know the HoloLens to have, in addition to many, many more. Now all we need is to get them to swap that iPad out for a Surface Pro 4 for a complete Microsoft experience.