If you are hoping to get a chance to become a contestant on the planned NBC series
Destination Mir -- a reality television series that will launch an everyday American into space for a rendezvous with the Russian space station Mir -- you will be able to sign up online in the near future.
According to NBC officials, a website will be available that will allow individuals to sign up to compete for the ride of their lives.
"It should be up and running by the end of the week," said NBC spokeswoman Diane Herzog.
The website will provide registration as well as information on the rules of the game and how to become a candidate.
Two weeks ago, NBC, an investor in SPACE.com, agreed to pay nearly $40 million for the rights to producer Mark Burnett's Destination Mir reality series.
For the new TV show, Destination Mir, guest cosmonauts will be tested at the Russian training camp, Star City, perhaps taking part in underwater training.
The series plans to put a new twist on Burnett’s gangbuster show Survivor. Instead of kicking people off an island, it would kick people out of a space program where
more than a dozen people will train like real astronauts to take a trip to the Mir station.
Each week, one contestant would be disqualified by the Russian space trainers. The guest cosmonauts will undergo rigorous physical and psychological testing at the
Russian training camp Star City. The winner would get a ride into orbit with two cosmonauts before docking at the Mir space station.
The final episode of the show will broadcast the launch live, followed by specials, until the winner splashes down to Earth. It will air in the fall of 2001.
The $35 million-to-$40 million price tag includes the nearly $20 million Burnett will pay to
Mircorp -- an internationally owned company that has leased the use of the space station from RKK Energia, the private Russian firm that now controls what was once the Soviet space program.
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