NASA astronauts can now take their phones with them on their mission to the moon | TechCrunch

Get ready for selfies that are out of this world. NASA astronauts will be able to take their smartphones into space for the first time, starting with the Crew-12 and Artemis II missions.

Crew-12 is expected to head to the International Space Station next week, while the much-anticipated Artemis II mission, which will bring humans around the moon for the first time since the 1960s, has been delayed until March.

“We give our crews the tools to capture special moments for their families and share inspiring images and videos with the world,” NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman wrote on X.

With the latest iPhones and Android devices on hand, the crew will be able to be a little more spontaneous in gathering images and videos, which means that for those of us at home, these upcoming trips to space could end up being some of NASA’s best-documented journeys to date.

Imagine how cool (or laudable) it will be when astronauts turn into TikTok stars in zero gravity or take ultra-wide-angle selfies in a spaceship. For those working in the government bureaucracy, it’s probably just as exciting that NASA has approved that this rule is changing very quickly.

“Equally important, we have challenged long-standing processes and qualified modern hardware for spaceflight on an accelerated timescale,” Isaacman wrote. “This operational urgency will serve NASA well as we continue to conduct science and research of the highest value in orbit and on the lunar surface.”

It makes sense that it would be difficult to get new technology approved for entering space – if one little thing goes wrong, a space flight can go very wrong. Until now, the latest cameras to go on these missions have been decade-old Nikon and GoPro digital SLRs, according to Ars Technica. This is by no means mysterious, but there is something more spontaneous and whimsical about using a smartphone.

However, this is not the first time that smartphones have gone into space. SpaceX has enabled smartphones for its private astronaut missions.