NASA astronauts who will take part in the most distant human space missions to date will also take iPhones with them, opening up a whole new scenario for the use of commercial consumer electronics in space. The news was confirmed by NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman in a post on social media.
According to him, starting with the Crew‑12 mission, as well as the upcoming Artemis II moon mission, astronauts will be allowed to carry modern smartphones with them. The goal is to make it easier for crews to record personal moments, but also to transmit authentic photos and videos from space to the world.
iPhone as part of official NASA equipment
NASA has confirmed that the device that received the certificate is the iPhone, while the possibility of approving other devices in the future is not excluded. Isaacman points out that this decision has a deeper meaning, as it implied a change in long-standing procedures and accelerated certification of modern hardware for use in extreme conditions.
The Crew-12 mission is scheduled for February 11, when four astronauts will fly to the International Space Station aboard the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft, carrying iPhones during their six-month stay in orbit. Artemis II, NASA’s first manned mission to the moon in more than 50 years, is currently delayed until at least March due to technical issues. During the 10-day flight, the crew will circle the moon without landing and test systems for future missions.
This mission will push the limits of human presence in space further than ever before, surpassing the record set by the Apollo 13 mission in 1970, when astronauts reached a distance of 400,171 kilometers from Earth.
Despite this being the first time that NASA has officially approved the use of smartphones on such missions, phones have made brief stints in orbit before. Back in 2011, during the last mission of the space shuttle Atlantis, two iPhone 4s devices were used to test the sensors. Still, the iPhone’s role in the upcoming missions represents the most significant step forward for consumer electronics in deep space exploration to date.