The SpaceLab app

The “phone” feature of these phones has been disabled. So, the astronauts won’t be able to call earth from the space station. Actually, the two iPhone 4 are not intended to do so. Rather the astronauts will perform four experiments during their stay at the International Space Station using these phones.

Odyssey Space Research has developed a custom app named SpaceLab for iOS. Using this app they will be able to do four experiments at the ISS.

The four experiments

The space craft crew will comprise of a Russian cosmonaut Sergei Volkov, Satoshi Furukawa of Japan's JAXA space agency and NASA's astronaut Michael Fossum.

The Soyuz's new version was to be blasted off for the first time from Baikonur in October. The Russian space agency has made the spacecraft lighter and modern with which it can carry more cargo onboard.

NASA's representative to Russia, Patrick Buzzard said, “It's like if you compare a car or a vehicle from 10 years ago, the next generation of vehicles are going to be improved, more efficient and have more capability.”

The Space shuttle crew then moved back into their shuttle to undock their ship. Endeavour’s commander Mark Kelly thanked the space station's crew members for their support and hospitality and called their mission a success.

Mark Kelly said, “We got the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer installed, which is really a remarkable thing for physics and for science. That sensor's already collecting massive amounts of data and we're looking forward to hearing what those discoveries are.”