With the hope of restoring low-cost space exploration, NASA is planning to launch mini satellites into space powered by Nexus One and Nexus S smartphones. The program, called “PhoneSat” aims to launch the “lowest-cost satellites ever flown into space,” which I’m guessing just wasn’t possible if they used an iPhone instead. Zing? Two prototype satellites exist as of now, one being version 1.0, powered by the Nexus One and other is version 2.0 powered by the Nexus S. 

Think back to January 5th, 2010. That was the date that the Nexus One was first announced and made available for purchase. I can vividly remember the announcement. I impatiently waited for someone to review the device, but the images I saw already confirmed my suspicions: this was going to be an incredible device. Even though it wasn’t on Verizon yet, I had plans to upgrade to it as soon as possible.

This vision of the Nexus One was a phone sold directly by Google to consumers. There was no store to try the device out. You went to google.com/phone to purchase the phone. If you had T-Mobile you could buy the phone unlocked for $529 or $179 on a new two year contract. Eventually a version of the Nexus One with AT&T bands was released in March. By April it was announced that the Nexus One would never be released on Verizon and that customers should buy the Droid Incredible instead. I was crushed, but I moved on (and eventually did get a Droid Incredible, which now sits on my desk running CM7).