Nasa briefly loses contact with ISS after power outage and relies on backup systems for first time

A Nasa power outage disrupted communication between mission control and the International Space Station on Tuesday for about 90 minutes. Photograph: AP

A power outage at Nasa’s building in Houston disrupted communication between mission control and the International Space Station (ISS) on Tuesday, forcing the space agency to rely on backup control systems for the first time.

The outage meant mission control lost command, telemetry and voice communications with the station in orbit. The power outage hit as upgrade work was under way in the building at Houston’s Johnson Space Center.