The Space Shuttle Atlantis just took off from Cape Canaveral, launching into outer space in what will be the last launch of NASA’s historic shuttle fleet. Aboard the shuttle are not only the crew of astronauts and the hopes and dreams of hundreds of millions of Americans, but a very special payload: two custom, zero-G iPhone 4s.
Two iPhone 4s certified for space travel are on board Space Shuttle Atlantis, the shuttle fleet’s historic final mission, STS-135.
The iPhone 4s will be running the SpaceLab for iOS app from Odyssey Space Research, which will be used for space research. They will remain on the ISS for several months for the crew to conduct a series of experiments.
Among other things, the app will help ISS astronauts find their relative position is space by matching pictures of the Earth taken with the iPhone’s camera to a database of coastline maps in the app.
A $0.99 “terrestrial” version of SpaceLab for iOS app is available today from the App Store. According to the company: “Flight data from the experiments are expected to be collected, analyzed, and then shared via this app on the App Store.”
Let’s hope NASA comes up with a viable replacement for their space shuttle fleet. I’d hate it if these were the last iPhones in space. What do you think the next iPhone to be launched into space will be like?
John Brownlee is a writer for Fast Company, and a contributing writer here at CoM. He has also written for Wired, Playboy, Boing Boing, Popular Mechanics, VentureBeat, and Gizmodo. He lives in Boston with his wife and two parakeets. You can follow him here on Twitter.
