The premise was inspired by physicist Freeman Dyson's real-life Project Orion, which aimed to design a nuclear-propelled spacecraft.

According to showrunner Philip Levens, President Kennedy halted development of the real Orion project after the Bay of Pigs invasion because the military was beginning to arm the spacecraft, fearing it was becoming a 'Death Star'.

Although produced as a self-contained miniseries, Ascension was structured so it could potentially continue as a full series, similar to how Battlestar Galactica evolved on the same network; Syfy ultimately decided in March 2015 not to order more episodes.

The series was filmed in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, with shooting beginning on July 7, 2014, produced by Sea to Sky Studios in association with Blumhouse Productions.

Instead of airing weekly as originally planned, Syfy changed its broadcast strategy to air the miniseries as a three-night 'event', showing two episodes per night on three consecutive nights starting December 15, 2014.

Tricia Helfer was the first actor announced for the main cast, cast as Viondra Denninger in April 2014, followed by Brian Van Holt as Captain Denninger in June 2014.

Wendy Crewson joined as a guest star in an unspecified role that ultimately turned out to be Director Katherine Warren.

The miniseries received mixed reviews, holding a 67% rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 33 reviews and a score of 56 out of 100 on Metacritic based on 14 critics.