Mavericks Civilian Space Foundation took a Nexus One and strapped it to a Intimidator-5 rocket and sent it soaring 28,000 feet straight up.

“The purpose of flying the Nexus One is to find a low-cost satellite solution,” says Thomas Atchison, chairman of the Mavericks Foundation. “The radio, processing power, sensors and cameras in smartphones potentially have the same capability as those in satellites.”

He continued on to say, “If you put a Nexus One in orbit, how will it perform?” he says. “How does the device handle the thermal temperature and vibrations. We wanted to see the results.”

The Nexus One hitched a ride on a rocket that is part of the ‘Clotho‘ project. Which is working to see how far off the Earths surface life exists.

Check out the video below showing the video images that were taken by the phone on its way up. A little nauseating but still very cool. On an earlier flight the screen was shattered but the second flight turned out better.

Source: Wired