A living room is about to become a launchpad. For the first time, a streaming service is carrying humanity back to the Moon live.
On Monday, April 6, 2026, at 1:00 p.m. ET, Netflix begins its livestream of NASA’s Artemis II mission. The Orion spacecraft will carry four astronauts on the first crewed lunar flyby in more than half a century. Viewers worldwide can watch the capsule slingshot around the Moon using lunar gravity, then begin the long fall home.
No human has traveled this far since Apollo 17 left the lunar surface in 1972. Artemis II changes that. The mission will push Orion farther into the solar system than any crewed spacecraft in over 50 years.
The trajectory is deliberate. By looping around the far side of the Moon, Orion will test life support, navigation, and heat shield performance at deep-space distances. Every system must work before Artemis III attempts a lunar landing.
This livestream marks a sharp departure from traditional space coverage. Instead of a dedicated NASA channel or cable news, the broadcast sits inside the Netflix platform. The interface is familiar. The stakes are not.
The stream will include onboard camera feeds, mission control audio, and real-time telemetry. When Orion passes behind the Moon, a brief signal blackout will occur. Then comes the moment that matters most: the powered flyby that bends the spacecraft back toward Earth.
A successful crewed lunar flyby proves three things. First, Orion can keep humans alive for extended deep-space transit. Second, the spacecraft’s navigation can handle lunar gravity assists. Third, the heat shield can survive re-entry at nearly 25,000 miles per hour.
Failure on any of those points would delay the Artemis program by years. Success clears the path for the first lunar landing since the last century.
After splashdown, NASA will spend months analyzing data from Artemis II. The target for Artemis III remains the lunar south pole, where water ice has been detected in permanently shadowed craters. That mission could launch as early as late 2027.
For now, all eyes are on Monday afternoon. A streaming audience will watch history unfold, one gravity assist at a time.
