Ever wanted to be an astronaut? Well now’s your chance because there’s a new, very real reality tv show titled Who Wants To Be An Astronaut.
As the name suggests, the reality TV show is looking to recruit 10 wannabe astronauts to compete in an eight-part series to win a once-in-a-lifetime seat on a real trip to the International Space Station.
The winner will be sent to the ISS as part of the Axiom Space Mission 2 (Ax-2) in 2022, which is arguably the coolest reality TV prize I’ve ever heard of.
Honestly, it’s hardly surprising to see reality TV going to space. First we had the billionaires flagging their interest, and there’s even a chance Tom Cruise will yeet himself up there to film an IRL space action movie. Reality TV is the natural progression, really.
“We’d like a diverse group of people that each have their own story, why they want to go to space, why they’re worthy of going to space, what their back story is,” Boat Rocker Studios, Unscripted President Jay Peterson told the New York Times.
The show, which is being developed by Discovery, is currently recruiting and is urging wannabe astronauts to apply now. If you’re interested, you can apply here by submitting a short video saying why you deserve the opportunity to be sent into space.
But don’t fret if you miss out on this trip because this is just one of many tourism and entertainment initiatives to get regular folk like you and I into space. Heck, even NASA is working with the likes of Axiom to develop a new commercial segment of the ISS.
“By the end of the decade I believe we will have at least five, possibly 10 private stations,” NanoRacks CEO Jeffrey Manber told the New York Times.
“Some for entertainment, some for research, some for in-space manufacturing, some for preparing the way for our journey to Mars. At long last, our more pragmatic aspirations are becoming reality.”
[related_content first=”1700643″]
And if you ask the experts, they say it’s a good thing for the future of space travel.
“This is a real inflection point, I think, with human spaceflight”” NASA’s director of commercial spaceflight development Phil McAlister said during a news conference earlier this month.
Basically, McAlister thinks space tourism is the way of the future, and the more we can get regular folk into space, the quicker we’ll be able to develop more exciting space things.
“I’m very bullish on the tourism market and the tourism activity,” Mr. McAlister said.
“I think more people that are going to fly, they’re going to want to do more things in space.”