The smartphone was protected by a case made by the Californian company Urban Armor Gear, but had no shield for the display.

It was first strapped to a weather balloon before being lifted to the outer reaches of Earth's atmosphere and then dropped earthwards.

The plunge was not quite a free-fall as the iPhone was attached to a rig consisting of two Go Pro video cameras, a GPS locator and a parachute.

None of the rig survived - but the miracle phone was largely unfazed by its epic journey.

The team found the phone in a field just 12 miles its take off point near Chirk Castle in Wales.

It shut down temporarily when faced with -56°C temperatures but once the iPhone was back on terra firma, it was switched back on and used to make a call.

The news may come as a surprise to anyone who has seen their mobile phone smash after falling just a few feet onto a pavement.

Steve Armstrong, the co-founder of Urban Armor Gear, said after the test: "Our cases already meet military drop-test standards, but now we can officially say that they are space tested as well."

Some companies seem to delight in sending objects into space and then sending them crashing back to Earth.

In 2013, a sex doll called Missy exploded during a bid to match Felix Baumgartner's skydiving world record.

(mirror.co.uk)