NASA+ and the Unique Live Ops Challenges of Streaming From the Moon and Beyond
NASA+ confronts many of the same difficulties of other large-scale streamers when it comes to ingesting, encoding, and delivering live video—particularly with remote teams—but transmitting over millions of miles also comes with complications other streamers might not have imagined. In this clip from their keynote at Streaming Media Connect 2026, NASA+ GM Rebecca Sirmons and SVTA Streaming Strategist Bhavesh Upadhyaya discuss the unique demands and product and project management challenges of streaming NASA’s Artemis lunar missions and what it will take for NASA+ to stream from the Moon Base that is in the planning stages now.
Lunar Streaming Project Management 101
Upadhyaya kicks off the discussion by enumerating some of the problems all streaming ops pros encounter trying to launch their shows live, whether they're streaming from the Moon or a venue or location considerably closer to home, and thus establishing some common ground between lunar and terrestrial surfaces as points of origin. "How do you create a live event? How do you produce it? And then how do you bring it into the network in terms of how do you now take that camera and production and encode it? How do you get the right quality from the encoder? How do you deliver that encoded video out to a place where you can start distributing it? And then how do you get it out to the widest audience?"
But what distinguishes NASA+'s challenges from those faced by other streamers, he points out, is that for NASA+, the "middle mile" happens to be "millions of miles" long. "So that presents a different problem. And unlike going to a venue here on the planet, you can't just simply send more people or a technician up to the moon to reboot an encoder or whatnot." Then he asks Sirmons, "What are the other concerns that you guys have about putting together the Moon Base" and, of course, streaming from it?"
"First of all," Sirmons replies, "there are different phases. It's Project Management 101. We have to walk before we run. We have to build it. So we'll start with few cameras, then build more." Then they add encoders--"hardware-based, not software-based. There are things like extreme cold, extreme heat, regolith, which is the moon dust. It gets everywhere. It's a pain. These are all things that are not good for encoders. There's radiation. I'm sure if you've watched a spacewalk or a camera in space from the International Space Station, you'll see that it might look like Christmas lights in the imagery. There are no Christmas lights in space. It's just from radiation."
She goes on to say that these are all things that happen and complicate the project over time, and "you don't know necessarily when these things are going to happen. And that's the thing that I would say overall is a thing to be mindful about, because when I talk to people about" the difference between streaming from the Moon and streaming on earth, "it's a completely different ballgame, because the game is not just on a certain date or at a certain time. It is 24/7. And you don't know under what capacity it's going to be. We can go live at any moment here."
A Balancing Act
As with any live event stream, but arguably more mission-critically, the stream is being managed in the context of other priorities. "When you're dealing with cameras live streaming in space, stuff can go wrong," she says. "And ultimately, the primary focus is the safety of our astronauts." This leaves the NASA+ operations crew "balancing everything," remaining cognizant of astronaut safety and mission objectives while at the same time ensuring "that the world can experience this, because this is crucial for exploration" and it is likely to have an impact on multiple generations who watch the stream.
"I grew up in Florida," she recalls. "I was in kindergarten when Challenger [happened], and I remember that moment, and it stayed with me. I never thought I could work at NASA." Before she joined took on her current job there, Sirmons says, she wanted her daughter "to experience NASA" and watch a launch "and I couldn't find it. Access is important. And now we're able to tune into NASA easily, watch on Netflix, watch on Amazon Prime, wherever we want, and on NASA+ proper."
Sirmons goes on to acknowledge that because he works at NASA, her daughter was "kind of over it. But because of Artemis II, because of other kids talking about it in school and being impressed by it, now she thinks it's cool. That right there is proof that this works."
Join us November 9-11, 2026 for more thought leadership, actionable insights, and lively debate at Streaming Media Connect 2026! Registration is open!
Related Articles
Although redundancy is considered a hallmark of a sound live streaming ops playbook, "it's only your friend if you test it," warns Live X co-founder Corey Behnke. So, what is the key to fail-safe operational protection in live streaming? LinkedIn Global Live Operations Lead Chris Packard and Streaming Technology Strategist Bhavesh Upadhyaya also offer streaming resiliency best practices and cautionary tales in this clip from Streaming Media Connect 2026.
20 Aug 2026
On Tuesday, August 11, Streaming Media will launch 20th Streaming Media Connect virtual event with an exclusive fireside chat with NASA's GM & Head of NASA+ Rebecca Sirmons, back by popular demand! Each morning of the 3-day event will kick off at 11am ET/8am PT with back-to-back keynote fireside chats featuring a varied array of industry luminaries, including TwelveLabs' Simon Lecointe, Google's Shobana Radhakrishnan, Wowza's Krish Kumar, TiVo's Briana Larsen, and Bally's Media's Jon Lin.
04 Aug 2026
On Thursday, Aug. 13, LinkedIn's Chris Packard, LiveX's Corey Behnke, and MemeHouse's Zylo Hefferan will join the SVTA's Bhavesh Upadhyaya for a Streaming Media Connect panel that examines how top streaming teams prepare for, monitor, and recover from tentpole live events like sports and concerts. The discussion will range from pre-event capacity planning, load testing, and failover strategies to establishing best practices for managing traffic spikes when the stakes are highest.
14 Jul 2026