Netflix has decided to start live streaming from space, more than 8 years after AWS and its pioneering encoding arm Elemental beamed 4K video live from the international space station back at NAB 2017.
Rocket launches, mission coverage, and astronaut spacewalks from the NASA+ live and on-demand streaming service will be redistributed on Netflix from summer 2025. Just as with 2017’s 4K live demo, this is another flagrant piece of self-promotion, albeit with impressive technical credentials under the hood.
So, if Netflix is not setting any world-firsts or boasting about breakthroughs in content delivery, then what does the streamer stand to gain from its stargazing exploits?
Plainly, live space events add another string to Netflix’s livestreaming bow, without spending hundreds of $millions on sports rights.
Netflix has steadily expanded its live-streaming repertoire since 2023, moving from comedy and boxing to WWE, NFL, award shows, and high-profile fan events. By adding “live space” as a new category, this edges Netflix into the educational category, which itself is just a small step away from news.
Scratching below the spacesuit, could this NASA experiment be Netflix’s rather extravagant way of dipping its toes into news?
Rocket launches certainly fall into the category of newsworthy TV moments, and as Faultline explored recently with the provocative TF1 tie-up in France, Netflix could be about to become a news distributor sooner than we think.
For NASA, the benefits are more obvious. Despite NASA+ already being a free-to-stream service without ads, livestreaming events via Netflix will increase engagement globally. As a taxpayer-funded entity, there is no commercial incentive for NASA to jump into hyperspace with Netflix, but the partnership will provide massive amplification for the scientific institute.
The Netflix experiment will also steer some traffic back to NASA+ and could even boost interest in its educational initiatives for young people.
When AWS, NASA, and NAB collaborated on a live 4K feed from 250 miles above Earth back in 2017, Faultline wondered at the time whether the achievement reflected best on NASA or of its technology suppliers. We decided to give them equal credit. But for Netflix, we’re not sure the same rules apply.
While this was a blatant brand-polishing exercise, it still marked a tough technical challenge that set AWS Elemental apart from most other encoding and cloud specialists at the time. AWS Elemental had to get a copy of its Live encoder software onto the ISS to make this possible—which was one hell of an uplink.
AWS Elemental delivered the live stream via an AWS workflow that includes AWS CloudWatch, Amazon Route 53, and the Amazon CloudFront CDN for public access in both 4K and HD—and we imagine the core of this set-up is still being relied on by NASA+ today.
So, what has changed technically over the past 8 years for NASA’s livestreaming?
A NASA agency spokesperson told Faultline: “As of 2023, NASA TV infrastructure has evolved into a modern-day streaming platform with our own home for live and original programming on NASA+. Our streaming infrastructure is comparable to modern day industry standards as we continue to support all our live events, and VoD streaming on NASA+. We use AWS and Akamai, and multiple different encoders.”
Referring to a space livestream hosted at NAB 2025, involving live UHD switching and routing capabilities, NASA’s spokesperson added, “Recently, we updated NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston to 4K and exhibited our capabilities this past year at NAB, with a live event interacting with astronauts aboard the International Space Station.”
The world’s most famous space agency also hinted that it is in discussions with additional distribution partners.
We should also credit Haivision, with its Makito X video encoders and decoders used for NASA live streams, providing low latency live video for monitoring in NASA and SpaceX control rooms for select launches.
NASA had already commissioned Haivision to deploy video streaming at some of its facilities, including its Mission control Center, after the encoding vendor won the tender in 2019.
In fact, Haivision has been working towards this contract for several years, with a key move coming in January 2018 when the company announced that several core products had been accredited by the US Defense Information Assurance Risk Management Framework (DIARMF). This accreditation authorized the use of Haivision’s IPTV, enterprise and digital signage products on the Department of Defense (DOD) Non-Secure Internet Protocol Router NETwork (NIPRNET).
This in turn built on Haivision gaining Department of Defense Information Network Approved Products List (DODIN APL) certification in 2017, under which the company committed to provide all branches of government with products that incorporate AES 256 encryption as well as enabling low latency video streaming over potentially unstable networks.
Haivision’s H.264 encoders gained compliance with MISP and STANAG 4609 KLV, both important for NASA.
NASA TV UHD, a satellite channel, was historically powered by Harmonic’s end-to-end delivery system, until the channel ceased operations in 2024 and was incorporated into NASA+.