TL;DR
- NASA astronauts have captured Earth from deep space using the iPhone 17 Pro Max, which no Android phone has ever done.
- The images were taken casually with the front camera during the Artemis II mission, essentially making them “space selfies”.
- While Samsung previously sent the Galaxy S24 to the edge of space, Apple’s phone is the first to be part of a manned lunar mission.
For years, the smartphone camera rivalry has been about specifications, processing power, and unique photography features offered by the devices. But now, NASA has given Apple a win that no Android phone can match.
Astronauts on the Artemis II mission have captured stunning photos of Earth using the iPhone 17 Pro Max, the first time a smartphone has captured a photo of our planet from deep space.
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Each Orion crew member is carrying an iPhone 17 Pro Max for personal use after the device was approved for extended operations in orbit earlier this year. The newly shared images show Commander Reed Wiseman and Mission Specialist Christina Koch looking toward Earth from the spacecraft window.
Metadata from Flickr It turns out that the photos were taken on April 2 using the front camera of the iPhone 17 Pro Max. It also shows that the images have been processed in Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Classic, with the possibility to adjust exposure, contrast and cropping.
No Android phone has ever done this. Although Android devices have flown in space before, none have been used on a crewed deep space mission to shoot such images of Earth.
In 2024, Samsung sent the Galaxy S24 into space, but that was a high-altitude balloon stunt that reached the edge of the atmosphere. In contrast, the iPhone 17 Pro Max is flying on NASA’s Artemis II mission, being used by the astronauts themselves, and capturing Earth from deep space.
Meanwhile, pro-grade camera gear is also being used in the mission, including the Nikon D5, Nikon Z 9 and GoPro HERO4 Black.
Artemis II is NASA’s first manned Moon mission since 1972 and is expected to set a record for the farthest distance humans have traveled from Earth before returning on April 10.
This means that the iPhone will be the first smartphone to travel the most distance ever traveled by any smartphone from Earth. Android phones certainly have a lot to offer when it comes to space travel.
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