One of the most fun parts about humans returning to the moon for the first time in decades is the photos they take along the way. And while many of the pictures are taken with full-size cameras, many are also being taken with one of the best smartphone cameras.
The Artemis II crew is circling the moon with an iPhone 17 Pro Max, capturing stunning photos that show just what Apple's device is capable of doing.
There are tons of photos coming back on NASA's website, and not all of them were captured with the iPhone, but some of the best ones were. For example, the stunning selfies of Christina Koch and Reid Wiseman shared by NASA on X, looking back towards Earth, were taken with the front-facing cameras of Apple's top-of-the-line iPhones from the Orion spacecraft.
Boldly going where no phone has gone
This view just hits different 🌍 @Astro_Christina and @astro_reid take a moment to look back at Earth as they continue deep into space toward the Moon. pic.twitter.com/NMDeLj256KApril 4, 2026
We can tell the photos were captured with the iPhone 17 Pro Max's selfie camera because NASA's photo archive includes all the metadata, including the type of camera that captured it. For example, this photo of the moon was taken with a Nikon D5.
It's fascinating to see which photos were captured with what device. Even a GoPro HERO4 Black has made its way into NASA's massive photo archive, thanks to this selfie-style photo of the Orion spacecraft.
While we're out exploring the galaxy, it would be interesting to see how a Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra does with capturing space images, but this particular crew seems to be filled with iPhone users (plus Nikon and GoPro).
The iPhone (and the rest of the human crew) will be farther from Earth than anyone has ever been as they circle the moon. This will surely lead to some interesting photos, both captured with the iPhone 17 Pro Max and other cameras, and I'm excited to see what comes of the rest of this and future moon missions.
Take photos like the astronauts
The iPhone 17 Pro Max is Apple's top-end smartphone, with an excellent 48MP 8x zoom camera, nearly 18-hour battery life, and a bright 6.9-inch OLED panel that’s rated for 3,000 nits.
The Nikon D5 is the company's last-generation DSLR (the Nikon D6 is the current model), but the D5 still takes excellent images thanks to its 20.8MP CMOS sensor and amazing low-light performance.
The GoPro Hero4 Black used by Artemis II has long since been discontinued, but the Hero13 Black — GoPro's newest model — is far more capable, with a 27MP sensor capable of taking 5.3K video at 60fps and excellent stabilization.
