Good News: Astronauts Can Finally Go Into Space Without Having To Break Their Crippling Phone Addiction

I have many addictions. Cars are a big one, obviously. Shopping for cars on Facebook Marketplace, too. I also love sugar to the point where I go into a tiny bit of withdrawal if I don’t have my daily fix. But my biggest addiction, by far, has got to be my phone. If I go five minutes without the thing and I’m not showering or sleeping, I get so anxious that I stop functioning.

For the longest time, I felt bad for astronauts going up into space. Sure, they get to see the unrivaled beauty and awe-inspiring views of space and earth from above, as well as the weightlessness of orbit, but they weren’t allowed to bring their smartphones along. If you can’t snap a video to send to your favorite group chat about being in space, then what’s the point? It’s basically like you weren’t there at all.

Thankfully, that’s changing with NASA’s upcoming missions. The head of NASA announced this week plans to start allowing astronauts to fly with today’s latest smartphones in their pockets. That means astronauts with crippling phone addictions like me won’t have to wean themselves off before venturing into the final frontier.

New Rules For Crew-12 And Artemis II

NASA astronauts will soon fly with the latest smartphones, beginning with Crew-12 and Artemis II. 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 long-standing…

— NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman (@NASAAdmin) February 5, 2026

NASA has two upcoming missions on the horizon. The first, Crew-12, is a program set to launch sometime this month in collaboration with SpaceX aboard a Crew Dragon spacecraft, with four crewmembers (two NASA astronauts, one European Space Agency astronaut, and one Russian cosmonaut), going to the International Space Station. The next is Artemis II, a more involved mission that plans to take three American astronauts and one Canadian astronaut out of low Earth orbit and around the moon.

NASA administrator Jared Isaacman announced on X (formerly Twitter) Wednesday evening plans to allow astronauts from both of these programs to take smartphones aboard.

NASA astronauts will soon fly with the latest smartphones, beginning with Crew-12 and Artemis II. We are giving our crews the tools to capture special moments for their families and share inspiring images and video with the world.

Seeing as how the newest camera previously approved for the Artemis II flight was a 2016 Nikon DSLR, this is great news for astronauts who want to capture visuals with modern technology, and for the people who want to see photos and videos through the lens of a modern device. If I were an astronaut on one of these missions, I’d be pretty hyped that I’d be able to catch up on my TikTok notifications as I’m flying into Earth’s atmosphere at Mach 32 (around 24,000 mph).

Reconsidering How Devices Are Approved

But more than that, Isaacman says the move is a step towards challenging modern spaceflight requirements:

Just as important, we challenged long-standing processes and qualified modern hardware for spaceflight on an expedited timeline. That operational urgency will serve NASA well as we pursue the highest-value science and research in orbit and on the lunar surface. This is a small step in the right direction.

Overlooking the stringent requirements necessary for a device to qualify for space travel is no joke—the requirements are there because they ensure their effectiveness and the safety of the astronauts using them. But as Ars Technica points out, the approval process might be a bit bloated:

The challenge of qualifying modern technology for spaceflight is real. There are a million ways in which the technology can become mired in the approval process, from radiation characterization of chips to battery thermal and vacuum tests, outgassing concerns, vibe testing, and other qualification concerns. Yes, these requirements exist for a reason. But Isaacman is now telling his team to challenge requirements to ensure they are still needed today. (If you don’t believe this is important, ask any NASA contractor about bloated requirements.)

Still, it’s not like NASA is going to let astronauts pocket their iPhones and hop into their respective spacecraft without doing some research. Phones weren’t allowed on board previous missions over concerns about electromagnetic interference, which could disrupt systems like navigation, life support, or communications, all of which seem pretty important.

NASA is still going to test phones to make sure that stuff isn’t affected, according to Gadgethacks.com. They’ll also be making sure the phones are up to the agency’s high standards for flammability, and whether they can withstand cosmic rays while outside of low Earth orbit (these irradiated, invisible beams from space can corrupt memory files and degrade processors).

As for security risks, the agency is taking similar precautions. From Gadgethacks.com:

Astronauts’ personal iPhones operate on separate wireless networks with no direct access to flight control systems, scientific payloads, or classified communications—creating an entirely isolated network bubble within the spacecraft’s existing infrastructure. Data encryption, remote wipe capabilities, and mandatory security updates become non-negotiable in this environment. Any app installation must undergo vetting to prevent malware or inadvertent data leakage. Imagine the potential disaster if a compromised game app somehow bridged the network gap and interfered with life support telemetry. The stakes are literally life-and-death, which means the verification process for approved apps is orders of magnitude more rigorous than what you’d find in a typical enterprise environment.

So long as Facebook Marketplace is on the list of approved apps, sign me up.

Top graphic images: DepositPhotos.com; SmolFrenz/TikTok