Apple TV is giving its acclaimed space drama “For All Mankind” one last liftoff, renewing the series for a sixth and final season while gearing up for the premiere of season five later this month. The show, which reimagines an alternate history where the space race never ended, has quietly become one of Apple TV’s most respected long-running originals since debuting in 2019.

Season five lands on Apple TV on Friday, March 27, with a 10-episode run that kicks off with a single-episode premiere followed by weekly drops through May 29. Set in the 2010s, the story moves deeper into the Mars era, with the Happy Valley colony now a bustling settlement of thousands and a launchpad for humanity’s next push further into the solar system. That progress comes with a price: tensions are rising between the people who now call Mars home and the Earth governments trying to impose “law and order” from millions of miles away.

Apple is treating the final stretch of this universe like a mini-franchise. Alongside season five, the streamer will debut “Star City,” a new spinoff that rewinds the clock to the Soviet side of the alt-history space race and plays things as a paranoid thriller behind the Iron Curtain. The eight-episode series bows globally on May 29 with two episodes at launch, then moves to a weekly rollout, mirroring the parent show’s release rhythm.

Behind the scenes, “For All Mankind” is sticking with its core creative brain trust: Ronald D. Moore, Matt Wolpert and Ben Nedivi, with Wolpert and Nedivi returning as showrunners and executive producers. The season five ensemble brings back Joel Kinnaman, Toby Kebbell, Edi Gathegi, Cynthy Wu, Coral Peña and Wrenn Schmidt, joined by new regulars Mireille Enos, Costa Ronin, Sean Kaufman, Ruby Cruz and Ines Asserson. It’s very much a generational saga at this point, with the show jumping forward in time each season to explore how this endless space race reshapes politics, technology and everyday life back on Earth.

Critically, “For All Mankind” has carved out a reputation as one of TV’s smartest sci‑fi dramas, often described as “superior sci-fi” and “one of the best shows on television,” and has picked up recognition from the Primetime Creative Arts Emmys, Producers Guild of America and Critics Choice Awards along the way. All four existing seasons are already streaming on Apple TV, and production on the sixth and final chapter is about to begin, setting up a defined endgame rather than an abrupt cancellation. For viewers who’ve been on board since the early moon missions—or anyone newly curious as real-world space programs ramp back up—this final two-season run looks designed to stick the landing.