Space Race: NBC Reality show where ordinary people go up!

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Reality Show "Space Race" Aims To Give Ordinary Americans A Shot At Space Travel

With a price tag of $250,000, commercial space travel is not a possibility for the 99%. Space Race, a new Mark Burnett reality show, hopes to send an Average Joe winner into orbit with partner Virgin Galactic.

By Neal Ungerleider

"Deep Space Homer," a beloved episode of The Simpsons, featured a cash-strapped NASA boosting public interest in the space program by sending ordinary American Homer Simpson into orbit. Turns out, the smart-about-science cartoon was prescient about space travel.

Legendary television producer Mark Burnett is teaming up with Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic for a new reality show where ordinary Americans compete to fly into space. On NBC's upcoming Space Race, which still doesn't have air or film dates, the winner's grand prize will be a trip into space courtesy of Virgin.

George Whitesides is bullish on a future where space tourism is a fact of life. The CEO of Virgin Galactic and the son of a legendary scientist, Whitesides helms a company whose business plan centers on short trips into space at $250,000 a pop. At a recent presentation at TEDxWallStreet, Whitesides was selling a crowd--many of whom can afford (or have bosses who can afford) to pay the ticket fee for short suborbital space flights--on the virtues of traveling into space. It was an easy sell: the audience was full of science aficionados and thrill junkies who raised their hands eagerly when asked if they'd like to go into space. Virgin Galactic's mission is to make space tourism affordable and doable, and a reality show is just the sort of advertisement they like. ...

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