The crew on NASA’s Atlantis space shuttle, which was launched recently for its final mission to the International Space Station (ISS), has taken two of Apple’s iPhone to space to help with experiments.

The iPhone are equipped with custom made software from Odyssey Space Research and will help astronauts track their scientific data. The device is designed with the phones unique attributes including e gyro, accelerometer, cameras and chip. The iPhone’s app called SpaceLab is also available to other users.

Meanwhile, the iPhones are not the only smartphones making it to space. Samsung’s Nexus S Android phones were also taken to space to help out with some on-going research on the Synchronized Position Hold, Engage, Reorient, Experimental Satellites.

DW Wheeler, Lead engineer, NASA's Intelligent Robotics Group said, "By connecting a smartphone, we can immediately make SPHERES more intelligent. With a smartphone, the SPHERES will have a built-in camera to take pictures and video, sensors to help conduct inspections, a powerful computing unit to make calculations, and a Wi-Fi connection that we will use to transfer data in real-time to the space station and mission control."