spacetoday.net: NBC and Virgin Galactic partner on space tourism reality show

Posted: Sat, Oct 5, 2013, 9:07 AM ET (1307 GMT)
SpaceShipTwo on second powered flight (MarsScientific.com)

Television network NBC and space tourism company Virgin Galactic announced on Thursday plans to work with veteran reality TV producer Mark Burnett on a show whose winner will fly in space. The "Space Race" program will feature people completing for the chance to fly into space on Virgin's SpaceShipTwo suborbital vehicle. Much of the series will be filmed at Spaceport America in New Mexico, although the announcement did not indicate when the series would be produced and telecast. Virgin Galactic is currently in the flight test program for SpaceShipTwo, and has previously indicated it would begin commercial flights of the vehicle some time next year. Burnett, best known as the producer of the hit reality TV series "Survivor," previously attempted a space-themed show called "Destination Mir" where the winner would have gone to the Russian space station Mir; the deorbiting of Mir in 2001 ended that concept.