NASA iPhone app full of surprises for space geeks

That's one small step for man, one giant leap for iPhone.

OK, that's probably a little overly dramatic, but the new NASA iPhone app, which was released Friday, is pretty cool.

With NASA's iPhone app, space geeks can access all kinds of information about their favorite missions.

(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET)

Designed to provide information, updates, and images on all current and scheduled NASA missions, the app--which can be found in Apple's App Store under the name "NASA app for iPhone--nicely allows you to search for any specific mission, say, Constellation, and then find information and images just for that project.

"Users can access NASA countdown clocks, the NASA Image of the Day, Astronomy Image of the Day, online videos, NASA's many Twitter feeds," and more, the space agency said in a press release about the app. It also allows users to track where the International Space Station is at any moment, as well as other spacecraft orbiting the planet, in three different views: maps with labels and borders, available visible imagery of satellites, and satellite positions overlaid on maps with country labels and borders.

Already, NASA nuts--you know who you are--have had access to much of this information online. But now, having it all available in a free iPhone app is going to keep these people happily staring down at the screen of their devices no matter where they are.

And for NASA, anything it can do to get more people excited about its various missions and projects is a good thing as it struggles for public resources and attention in an era where the economy is in trouble and people are increasingly distracted by other things.

[MrZook]

Sweet.

[slapppy]

Yes this is good for all iPhone/iPodT users. Go get it.

[AppleSuxLeo]

NASA uses Dell computers.

[murbo]

i am nominating you as the biggest loser/dumass in the universe... don't be surprised when some aliens come to pick you up for the award ceremony in a few days.. furthermore don't be surprised when you win the award so get your speech ready... if i remember correctly it should be in the flavor of "im not a ******!"

WHAT THE HELL "NASA uses Dell computers" HAS TO DO WITH THE ARTICLE?

did steve jobs have buttsex with you or something? is that why you hate apple so much that you post irrelevant crap to iphone and apple threads all the time?
.......

speaking about the article, i prefer the spacegeek app since it has a live feed of spacetv over 3g as well. you can watch the shuttle launches.

[Dalkorian]

Sigh - don't feed the troll.

[j3pr0x]

Any word on an Android version?