A backup software developed in Cluj-Napoca, a city in western Romania, is being used on NASA’s International Space Station starting May of this year.

NASA has purchased 20 licenses of the Backup4all software, developed by a group of programmers from Cluj-Napoca, who own the local company Softland, reports local News.ro.

One such license costs USD 49.99, but NASA benefited from a discount, as it purchased a larger quantity. Thus, the agency paid USD 770 for 20 licenses. Moreover, the app also needed to be modified, as it had to be used in an environment without access to the Internet.

“We received an email from NASA in January this year, in which they were telling us that they would like to install Backup4all in a very secure environment without access to the Internet. They explained that our activation mode would not work in their environment, and then we found out that they wanted to install the application on the International Space Station,” said Lorant Barla, CEO at Softland.

After one month of tests and configurations, the Backup4all software started being used on May 31. “Thus, it now runs on eight laptops on the International Space Station,” Barla explained.

“NASA has bought the app from our site as any regular customer. We did not even know. Maybe we have other such important clients that we don’t know about,” Lorant Barla added.

According to him, NASA chose this software because they found it to be the best solution that they can configure to fit their needs.

The Romanian programmers are still in contact with those working at NASA, in case they need support.

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Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com

(photo source: Apod.nasa.gov)