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Astronauts can now carry modern smartphones on space missions, according to a tweet this week From Nasa Administrator Jared Isaacman. Isaacman said the policy will begin with spacex crew-12 and artimis II.
The SpaceX Crew-12 mission is scheduled to launch on February 11 and will carry four astronauts to the International Space Station. NASA’s Artemis II mission expected to launch in March; it will send four astronauts on a 10-day flight that will orbit the Moon and return to Earth.
“We give our crew the tools to capture special moments for their families and share inspiring images and videos with the world,” Isaacman wrote.
NASA astronauts will soon fly with the latest smartphones, starting with Crew-12 and Artemis II. We give our crew the tools to capture special moments for their families and share inspiring images and videos with the world. Just as importantly, we challenge long-standing…
— NASAS Admin Jared Isaac (@LAAAA Admin) February 5, 2026
An Apple representative noted in an email to CNET that this is “the first time (the) iPhone is fully qualified for long-term use in orbit and beyond.”
“Until now, astronauts have been largely limited to legacy cameras and older imaging equipment,” the spokesperson said.
NASA did not mention specific phone brands or models in its tweet.
Ars Technica reported that today’s space missions use 2016 Nikon DSLR and GoPro cameras.
Photography has played an important role in space missions since the Apollo missions of the 1960s and 1970s. The astronauts of Apollo 11, the first men to set foot on the moon, captured iconic photos on their famous mission in July 1969 using a specially modified Hasselblad camera.
