Practically 150 million individuals shared within the “moon pleasure” of Artemis II on NASA channels, setting a brand new company file within the course of.
NASA numbers point out that 149.4 million individuals used company platforms in March and April to observe the 4 astronauts of Artemis II as they prepped for his or her mission, lifted off aboard the Area Launch System rocket, flew by the moon and eventually splashed down within the Pacific Ocean. The viewership determine contains the mission’s 24/7 livestreams of mission actions and views from the Orion spacecraft.
“Artemis II’s human‑spaceflight narrative, actual‑time crew updates, and extremely visible moments drew tens of millions of latest followers throughout platforms,” the company stated of the historic lunar flyby mission, which ran from April 1 to April 10.
On board had been NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch in addition to Canadian Area Company astronaut Jeremy Hansen. The quartet flew farther than any human earlier than them whereas making the primary journey to the moon since Apollo 17‘s touchdown in 1972.
Glover, Koch and Hansen grew to become the primary Black individual, girl and non-American, respectively, to fly past low Earth orbit, and the crew engaged repeatedly in reside occasions with politicians, journalists, college students and different audiences from afar.
The reside broadcast drew reward on social media for displaying the work of the astronauts, together with struggles with bathroom venting, the crew’s descriptions of the lunar floor and a shifting group hug when the crew urged naming a lunar crater after Wiseman’s late spouse, Carroll.
Launch (April 1)
NASA’s official Artemis II launch webcast reached a peak of practically 3.67 million simultaneous viewers. That is a file, surpassing different massive launches in current company historical past, NASA acknowledged, together with that of the uncrewed Artemis I mission to lunar orbit in November 2022 or the James Webb Space Telescope in December 2021. (The agency did not disclose in the release how many views each event received.)
Roughly 16.6 million people watched the Artemis II launch live across agency platforms, with that number rising to 23.9 million views when taking into account those who tuned in after the fact. NASA’s Spanish-language broadcast alone received a “landmark peak” of 458,366 simultaneous views, which has since risen to 2.8 million total views, according to the agency.
Lunar flyby (April 6)
NASA’s lunar flyby broadcast alone “delivered one of the largest peak audiences ever recorded,” according to the agency. As many as 1,471,069 people tuned in at the same time. Nearly 900,000 of those folks watched on YouTube, and about 190,000 viewers tuned in via X or Twitch.
Splashdown (April 10)
The dramatic reentry, splashdown and recovery of the four Artemis 2 astronauts generated a peak of 3,838,418 live viewers on agency platforms — nearly 5% higher than the liftoff’s peak viewership.
NASA attributed the increase to interest in the “riskiest moments” that some global news outlets highlighted about the mission, “particularly Orion’s re-entry and heat‑shield performance.” (Unexpected issues with Artemis I’s heat shield drew concerns from some when the agency flew the same design on Artemis II — although all turned out well, partly because NASA modified Artemis II’s reentry trajectory.) Some news outlets, however, have said global interest came because the astronauts showed “worldly harmony” and shared their experiences with “heartfelt words.”
Whole, non-simultaneous reside views of the splashdown on company platforms clocked in at 24.1 million, which rises to 29.5 million when bearing in mind individuals who tuned in after the actual fact. However when bringing in a choice of the most important broadcasters who lined the touchdown, NASA stated that viewership rose to “a whole bunch of tens of millions of potential viewers worldwide.”
The company targeted on choose streaming platforms in its evaluation, together with HBO Max, Netflix, Peacock and Amazon Prime Video. Information networks weren’t included. The streaming platforms launched subscriber numbers, however not mission viewership numbers. HBO Max had between 120 million and 150 million world subscribers through the mission, Netflix 325 million paid world subscribers (as Netflix permits some account sharing), Peacock between 36 million and 41 million U.S. subscribers, and Amazon Prime Video as much as 275 million world subscribers, in accordance with NASA.
Web sites
NASA stated a “main surge” got here in company web site site visitors due to Artemis II.
- Complete mission: NASA.gov obtained 125.1 million web page views through the mission, which was a 150% enhance over the 50 million who logged in throughout your complete month of March. An internet site displaying Orion’s orbit, referred to as “Artemis II Mission in Actual Time,” or AROW, “surpassed” 11 million cumulative views since launch, though NASA didn’t say whether or not the AROW views continued to be counted after the mission concluded.
- Launch day (April 1): The mission’s debut introduced 17.6 million web page views throughout all NASA websites, from 8.3 million particular person guests.
- Lunar flyby (April 6): Greater than 16.5 million web page views got here to NASA web sites from 6.2 million particular person guests. As part of the overall web page views, the NASA homepage bought 2.3 million, whereas AROW confirmed 1.9 million.
- Splashdown (April 10): Greater than 6.1 million individuals logged on to NASA web sites on splashdown day, producing 16 million web page views. Of that determine, AROW alone generated 1 million web page views.
NASA tracked 261 million people partaking with its social media accounts (which weren’t specified) between March 27 and April 13. Splashdown was the one milestone chosen for particular person evaluation, with 35 million engagements proven on April 10.
“Public response to NASA’s Artemis II mission remained largely regular throughout launch week, with impartial and optimistic posts dominating the net dialog. Impartial sentiment persistently led every day dialogue, starting from 47 to 60%, whereas optimistic reactions accounted for 30 to 42%, fueled by pleasure over the crew’s historic lunar journey, hanging mission imagery, and renewed curiosity in deep house exploration,” the company acknowledged of the engagement.
NASA additionally famous “robust amplification” on social media from “main information retailers, manufacturers, and worldwide companions.” The Canadian Space Agency, working with other Canadian government departments and agencies, was the major international partner on Artemis II because of Hansen and backup CSA astronaut Jenni Gibbons (who also served as CAPCOM during lunar flyby), among other mission contributions. CSA hosted several live mission events in Canada, and had extensive social media engagement. The European Space Agency, which contributed the service module for Orion, also posted frequently during the mission.
NASA experienced “major social media growth” through Artemis II, with these figures below said to encompass the milestones between liftoff and splashdown. “Collectively, these gains highlight how Artemis II’s human‑spaceflight narrative, real‑time crew updates, and highly visual moments drew millions of new followers across platforms,” the agency stated.
- NASA’s Instagram added 4.6 million followers. (The agency did not include the baseline number of followers during the mission in April, but as of July 7 it stands at 104 million).
- NASA’s Artemis account on Instagram grew by 2 million, which was said to be “a 66 percent increase” while the mission was ongoing.
- The agency also noted “significant gains” on X, Facebook and YouTube. Numbers were not released for X. YouTube subscribers increased by 2 million during the mission in April; the baseline number was not disclosed, but as of July 7 numbers stand at 15 million. Facebook reached 1.7 million more people; as of July 7, the agency has 28 million followers on that platform.
Miscellaneous
NASA also highlighted a selection of its campaigns before and during the mission to engage the public’s interest but released few metrics about how these contributed to overall viewership and engagement.
- The moon-mascot campaign: Thousands of people from 50 countries contributed ideas for a zero-gravity indicator for Artemis II, which ultimately ended up being “Rise” from eight-year-old Lucas Ye.
- Sending public names to the moon: Rise carried an SD card containing 5.6 million names submitted, from individuals around the world, to fly around the moon.
- Other partnerships: Artemis II was also highlighted on a Google Doodle on April 1, a Spotify playlist that featured the crew’s wakeup songs, and on Merriam-Webster’s Facebook page.
