Reid Wiseman looks at Earth through Orion’s cabin window during Artemis II. Credit: NASA
NASA has released Artemis II images of Orion’s leg toward the Moon, and this interactive timeline organizing them shows how an iPhone 17 Pro Max and other onboard cameras were used throughout the mission.
Astronauts aboard Orion captured images throughout the Artemis II mission, including selfies, eclipse photos, and views of Earth through the spacecraft’s front windows, with some images taken with an iPhone 17 Pro Max. An image titled “Thinking of You, Earth” shows a crew member silhouetted against the planet as Orion moved deeper into cislunar space.
The timeline, recently released, shows life inside the cabin, including floating group photos, tethered seats, and handheld footage taken in microgravity. It covers several points of the flight as well as images from dedicated cameras, including Nikon systems and GoPros mounted on Orion.
The approach mirrors how NASA approved personal devices for Artemis II. The iPhone flew as a crew personal tool with wireless radios disabled and no direct connection to flight systems, secured with Velcro or stowed in suit pockets during critical phases.
Photos and videos routed through Orion’s onboard communications system for a downlink to Earth rather than transmitting them from the phones themselves. Inside the cabin, the astronauts used these devices to capture what they saw during the flight.
Shuttle-era experiments briefly placed Macintosh systems close to crew workflows, where engineers studied how astronauts used software in microgravity. Later missions pushed consumer hardware out of operational contexts as certification standards strengthened.
Sleeping bags inside Orion before the Artemis II lunar flyby on April 6, 2026. Credit: NASAArtemis II brought these devices back under tightly controlled borders. The iPhones worked alongside the mission systems as devices carried by the crew throughout the flight, giving astronauts a modern version of the personal journals seen in “Star Trek.”
The timeline shows how the devices were used in practice. A phone captured a view of Earth through Orion’s window, followed by a floating group selfie and a dimly lit interior photo taken during a calmer period of the flight.
Apple’s current role in spaceflight is to document the mission from inside the cabin. The hardware returned with a smaller, more controlled lens, recording daily life inside Orion during a crewed mission beyond low Earth orbit, with the timeline making this use visible throughout the flight.