For those who don’t know, the ThinkPad is a rugged and renowned business laptop that has the distinction of becoming the first machine of its type to serve astronauts in space. Built by IBM – a company no stranger to pioneers – and featuring that recognizable red TrackPoint button in the middle of the keyboard, the first ThinkPad reached orbit in 1993 aboard the space shuttle Endeavor. The first laptop in orbit was the ThinkPad 750C, introduced by IBM in 1993 for around $4,699. It had a 10.4-inch color TFT display, a 486 processor and was positioned as a high-end business laptop. After that, Lenovo’s new ThinkPad T61p became the standard hardware for ISS astronauts. But big changes were afoot.
In 2005, Lenovo acquired IBM’s PC business, including the ThinkPad brand. The deal meant the Chinese tech giant inherited a line of ThinkPads that were already part of NASA’s space operations. In April 2016, NASA began a three-year process to transition the laptop fleet from ThinkPads to HP ZBook mobile workstations. This change means that NASA is no longer using ThinkPads as the primary computers on the ISS, although the ThinkPad T61p continued to play a specialized role in space until 2023. NASA has not yet confirmed that all remaining T61p laptops have been decommissioned, so some may still be in use today.
The big move from Lenovo to HP
So why did the ThinkPad lose to the ZBook? Well, in 2016, NASA’s ThinkPad T61p fleet was over six years old, and a scheduled hardware refresh gave the agency the opportunity to upgrade to a newer workstation platform. The agency decided that HP’s ZBook offered a more modern and powerful platform, with newer processors and more storage and memory, while still providing the ruggedness and reliability needed to keep a computer in good working order above Earth. The change has been made and astronauts aboard the ISS continue to use the ZBook as their primary laptop.
In 2016, NASA decided to move from the long-standing ThinkPad to HP ZBook workstations. It started with five ZBooks being sent to the space station in April of that year, and today there are 100 HP laptops in use aboard the ISS. The relationship between NASA and HP didn’t start with the ZBook. For decades, starting in the early days of the space race, HP has provided technology and expertise to NASA programs. This included instruments on America’s first satellite (Explorer I) and components – on the ground and in space – on the Apollo 11 moon landing.
