Contestants will compete for a SpaceX trip to the International Space Station in new reality TV show
There's a reality TV competition show in the works that will feature a 2023 trip to the International Space Station as the grand prize, Deadline reports. The production company behind the show, which will be called Space Hero," has booked a seat on a SpaceX Dragon crew spacecraft set to make the trip to the ISS in 2023, and will make it the reward for whoever comes out the winner in a competition among everyday people from any background who share a deep love for space exploration," according to the report.
The competition will be an ersatz astronaut training program of sorts, including physical challenges, as well as puzzles and problem-solving tasks, as well as emotionally challenging scenarios, according to Deadline. That will lead up to what producers are currently planning will be a live episode featuring a global viewer vote about who ultimately will win. The show will also include documenting the winner's ISS trip, including their launch and 10-day space station stay, as well as their return journey and landing.
To bring all these pieces together, the production team is working with Axiom Space, a private space travel services provider and mission operator, as well as NASA, with which it's discussing what might be done in terms of STEM education add-ons for this planned programming.
Axiom Space pitches its first 10-day, all-inclusive trip to the ISS for just $55 million
Deadline says that Survivor" creator and reality industry giant Mark Burnett has previously tried multiple times to create a reality show with a trip to space as the main component. One such effort, an NBC-based program called Space Race," was created in partnership with Richard Branson and focused on Virgin Galactic, but it was ended after that company's fatal testing accident in 2015.
There's also a movie production in the works that's bound for the space station as a filming location, and those efforts are being spearheaded by Tom Cruise, who will star in the yet untitled project. NASA has repeatedly said it welcomes increased commercialization of low-Earth orbit and the ISS, and it also intentionally sought out private partners like SpaceX for its U.S.-based astronaut launch vehicles, in the hopes that they would be able to book other, private clients for flights to help defray mission costs.