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Former Cryptocurrency Firm Plans Reality Show to Choose Next Blue Origin Spaceflight Crew
A former cryptocurrency company is planning to launch a reality TV show that will chronicle its efforts to send people from underrepresented nations into space aboard a Blue Origin suborbital vehicle.
The Space Exploration and Research Agency (SERA), formerly called the Crypto Space Agency, plans to send people from India, Nigeria and a region known as the Small Island Developing States in the future Blue Origin flight, the American company announced on Monday (July 1). Candidates for spaceflight will first be chosen through a public voting system, then finalists will participate in a docuseries about the final step in the selection process, the company states on his website.
The announcement covers a relationship released in June, stating that the New Shepard vehicle will carry the first Nigerian into space, as well as that same SERA’s announcement in April, stating that the company had purchased a six-seat Blue Origin flight for a yet-to-be-determined date.
The Blue Origin flight “marks a significant milestone for nations that have historically lacked access to space and paves the way for innovation and progress in these regions,” SERA officials wrote in a statement.
Related: Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin May Soon Launch Nigeria’s First Space Tourist
SERA did not announce when Blue Origin would make the flight, but noted that the selected candidates for India, Nigeria and the small islands would be open to public voting in the future, with details to come. (The islands are a group of 39 states and 18 associate members of regional commissions. of the United Nations(found in the Pacific, Atlantic, and Indian Oceans, as well as the Caribbean and South China Sea.)
SERA, when it was still called Crypto Space Agency, sponsored the Brazilian Victor Correa Hespanha aboard the suborbital mission NS-21 on Blue Origin in 2022. The cryptocurrency company sold 5,555 non-fungible tokens (NFTs) to participants on April 25, 2022, and randomly selected Hespanha in a spaceflight drawing, according to a previous release.
NFTs and cryptocurrencies more generally have received warnings from the Securities and Exchange Commission on Ponzi schemesCryptocurrency communities have also been linked to anti-diversity and misogynistic practices, According to the San Francisco Chronicle.
Since quietly changing its name in 2024 and announcing its Blue Origin flight in AprilSERA has not disclosed in press releases how it is currently being funded. It is possible that the upcoming Blue Origin initiative will involve a reality show deal, however, as SERA says it already has plans in place for the Phase 2 docuseries.
“Candidates will form into teams, with one representative for each spot, to compete in a series of challenges that will be streamed across multiple episodes,” SERA said. the representatives wrote.
There have already been attempts to use reality television as a way to drum up interest in spaceflight. The now-defunct Mars One organization has proposed using profits from documentaries a decade ago in a failed attempt to take humans on a one-way mission to the Red Planet. Other spaceflight reality TV efforts have included “Space Hero” AND “Who Wants to Be an Astronaut?“, among many others.
That said, SERA has partnered with several organizations in other countries to make the future Blue Origin flight a reality, in addition to Blue Origin itself, as outlined in the most recent press release.
“For these seats, SERA has partnered with Nigeria’s National Space Research Development Agency (NASRDA) and the Maldives Space Research Organization (MSRO). The remaining seat allocations for underrepresented countries will be revealed later this year,” officials said in the release.