NASA has announced that its popular NASA app is now available for free on Apple AAPL -0.40% TV, making it easier than ever for the whole family to explore the beauty, variety and majesty of space.

Owners of the fourth-generation Apple TV can download the NASA app now from the app store, opening the door to everything from epic still images and videos of space through to NASA mission information and streamed access to ‘NASA TV’.

This sort of content has been available on other platforms before, of course. In fact, owners of iOS, Android and Fire OS devices have already downloaded the NASA app more than 17 million times. But they key point about the app’s arrival on Apple TV is that it means you can now experience all of this lovely stuff on a big screen, and in a shared family rather than merely personal space.

Images like this look lovely on your big TV. (Photo: NASA)

In other words, we can expect a huge surge in the number of kids answering ‘astronaut’ when asked what they want to be when they grow up, as well as potentially crowded living room scenes reminiscent of the 1969 moonlandings when any particularly significant NASA action comes up.

The full list of features the NASA app for Apple TV offers goes as follows:

1. Live streaming of NASA TV.

2. Real-time views of the Earth from the International Space Station.

3. Access to more than 15,000 still images that you can search for individually or watch as a mind-blowing continuous slideshow.

4. Access to NASA videos on demand.

5. Details of when you will next be able to view the International Space Station and other NASA satellites as they pass over your location.

6. Access to 2D and 3D satellite tracking maps.

7. Background information on the latest NASA missions.

8. Streamed access to the Third Rock radio channel.

9. Access to the ‘Earth as Art’ image gallery.

David Weaver, NASA associate administrator for Communications, says this of the NASA app for Apple TV: “The NASA app has been a fantastic way for the public to experience the excitement of space exploration from their mobile devices. Now, users with the latest Apple TV can explore and enjoy our remarkable images, videos, mission information, NASA Television and more on the big screen with the whole family.”

The NASA TV App as it appears in the app store. (Photo: John Archer)

With NASA now actually broadcasting video content in 4K (as reported here) I can’t help but find myself wishing for the umpteenth time that Apple had made the fourth-generation Apple TV 4K-capable (for more on this see The New Apple TV Is Already Out Of Date).

Nonetheless, having played with the NASA app before writing this story I can confirm that the photos, TV and video clips available really do work brilliantly on a big-screen TV and make for a mesmerising, beautiful and bizarrely relaxing ‘screen saver’ when you’re not using the TV for anything else.

By John Archer

Source: Forbes