Space Hero global reality contest offers a trip to the International Space Station
It's the reality show with a prize to top them all – a seat on a 2023 mission to the ISS.
It's without doubt the ultimate reality show: Space Hero is launching a search for an ordinary person with an extraordinary interest in space to take a seat on a 2023 mission to the International Space Station.
Space Hero Inc is a US-based production company founded by Thomas Reemer and Deborah Sass and led by former News Corp Europe chief Marty Pompadur. Its website simply says: "Space Hero: Do You have What it Takes?"
A clock on the website is currently counting down from 206 days.
While the ultimate prize is a trip to outer space, the series itself will be an earthly enterprise. Deadline reports that the final episode will be broadcast live around the world and viewers everywhere will decide which contestant will become the ultimate Space Hero.
Before that, the chosen few contestants who make it through to the final stage will undergo the kind of training required of professional astronauts.
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Space Hero will then focus on the winner's take-off, the 10-day stay on the ISS, living alongside astronauts travelling around the Earth 16 times a day. It will end, of course, with their return to Earth.
The trip to the ISS for the Space Hero winner will be on a SpaceX Dragon rocket.
Space Hero, which will be produced by Propagate, will be taken out to streaming networks soon; the plan being it will have a global streaming platform or a broadcast partner in each country.
“We’re so excited to go on this extraordinary journey with this ambitious global team,” said Propagate co-CEOs Howard T Owens and Ben Silverman. “There’s never been a more important time to look beyond ourselves and reach for the skies above. This could be not only the biggest but the most important show in the history of the television and we are thrilled to be involved.”
Space Hero creator and founding partner Reemer said: “We see the world changing in front of our eyes. In times like these we yearn to look up to people for the right reasons, so it’s time to look amongst ourselves to find the heroes that will inspire a bright future."
Reemer had worked on the idea since 2008. The initial conception was developed with Russian broadcaster, Channel One CEO Konstantin Ernst, but it was shelved in 2009 NASA’s shuttle programme was closed.
The idea re-emerged a few years later when Reemer met Deborah Sass and SpaceX and Boeing were gearing up to take people back to the ISS.
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