NASA upgrades ISS laptops: Here's what astronauts are using now
What's the story
The crew of Expedition 74 aboard the International Space Station (ISS) is getting an upgrade in the form of new laptops. NASA announced last week that the upgrade process is underway. The first step involves replacing network servers, followed by activating their new and more powerful laptop computers. The ISS Program has chosen the HP ZBook G9 Mobile Workstation as its next laptop.
Tech specs
Custom ZBook Fury G9 laptops for the ISS
The custom ZBook Fury G9 for the ISS packs an Intel Core Ultra 9 vPro HX processor, an NVIDIA RTX Pro Blackwell GPU, 128GB of DDR5 memory, and four 2TB NVMe SSDs. The ISS configuration also required a custom "NASA-exclusive" DC power adapter as standard AC chargers used on Earth won't work in space.
Space tech
Over 100 new workstations are currently in use
Since October 2025, the ISS has been upgrading from older HP ZBook Fury G2 laptops to the newer G9 version. Currently, there are over 100 of these workstations actively running on board the ISS. Along with them, there are also HP printers designed specifically for microgravity conditions. The new HP ZBook Fury G9 laptops on the ISS are "the third generation of HP compute platforms onboard."
Upgrade timeline
The ISS is scheduled to be decommissioned by 2030
While the current upgrade is a major step forward, it may be one of the last such moves for the ISS. The space station is scheduled to be de-orbited sometime in 2030, which means there may not be many more opportunities for hardware upgrades like this one.