Smartphones in space, finally!

Except for two iPhone 4S devices placed on a rocket in 2011, smartphones have always been banned from space missions… On the Crew-12 and Artemis II missions, NASA allows smartphones. NASA has very strict rules regarding the technologies that are allowed to leave Earth orbit, for safety reasons. But NASA is also very, even too, slow to change these rules, a sluggishness that the current administrator of the American space agency, Jared Isaacman, wants to shake up. NASA recently announced the lifting of this ban, meaning astronauts will now be able to bring their iPhones or Android devices on the Crew-12 and Artemis II missions, launching on February 13 and March 2026, respectively. Jared Isaacman, administrator of the American space agency, stated, “We are giving our crews the means to capture special moments for their families and share inspiring images and videos with the world. Equally important, we have challenged long-established processes and qualified modern hardware for spaceflight on an accelerated timeline. This operational urgency will be an asset for NASA in pursuing the most valuable research and scientific work in orbit and on the lunar surface.” "It's a small step in the right direction." We can therefore expect better quality and more spontaneous images, as astronauts have so far been limited by bulky cameras requiring more handling to use.