The Artemis II mission is about to go down in the annals of history, traveling farther in space than any other crewed mission as the Orion spacecraft slingshots around the dark side of the moon. But it's making history in more ways than one.
In fact, the journey has been filled with firsts. It's the first time a woman astronaut and a Black astronaut have made their way to the moon. It's the first crewed launch of NASA's Artemis program, a multi-year effort to get us back on the lunar surface. It's also the first time humans have left Earth's orbit since 1972.
And, to the fascination of many online, the Artemis II crew is the first to bring iPhones into space.
Armed with a vessel equipped with the space agency's finest tech (don't mind the broken toilet or glitchy Outlook setups), the team also slipped the thin, aluminum unibody of Apple's latest iPhone 17 Pro Max into their space suit pockets. And they've been using the devices to document the journey, including two "selfies" posted by NASA and crew member accounts this past weekend.
In one image, taken April 2, mission specialist Christina Koch peers out of the Orion spacecraft windows, her face in shadow as the brilliant image of Earth shines behind her. The second image shows Commander Reid Wiseman in the same dramatic fashion, a mirror image of Koch, the two space voyagers looking back at their home.
According to the NASA Johnson Space Center Flickr page, the photos were taken with the iPhone's front camera, so, yes, they are technically selfies. And if you want even more specs, the photos were taken with the 2.715mm lens, f/1.9 aperture, and with the flash off.
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The Artemis II crew got the green light to bring iPhone 17s aboard the spacecraft months ago and had them in hand during their pre-flight quarantine. Smartphones have left Earth's orbit before, including on the 2021 Inspiration4 SpaceX flight and the last mission of the American Space Shuttle program.
In a statement to the New York Times, Apple said they weren't involved in the approval processes for sending the phones into space, but that it's "the first time an iPhone had fully qualified for extended use in orbit and beyond."
The devices can't connect to the internet or even Bluetooth, but they can take photos and videos of the journey, which are then handed over to the Artemis teams back on Earth.
"We are giving our crews the tools to capture special moments for their families and share inspiring images and video with the world. Just as important, we challenged longstanding processes and qualified modern hardware for spaceflight on an expedited timeline," explained NASA administrator Jared Isaacman in a February X post.
The devices even made their way into the NASA livestream, with one flying across the cockpit from the hand of mission specialist Jeremy Hansen and over the head of pilot Victor Glover.
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So, how are Koch and Wiseman posting these incredible photos to the 'gram, without access to the internet (and while literally flying a spacecraft to the moon)?
"All four astronauts will hand their social media over to our respective agencies," Wiseman explained in a pre-flight social media post. "While we're up there, [NASA's] social media coordinator for the astronaut office, Camille, will be posting for myself, Victor, and Christina. We will write the content, we'll give her the ideas, we'll send pictures down while we're on our way out to the moon and back, and then she'll do the posting."
Everyone say thank you, Camille!
