Banijay Asia, a content producing company, has joined hands with the Space Exploration and Research Agency, an agency to build global community for space exploration and research, to make a reality show. The show will search across India and other countries for six people who would get an opportunity to fly into space.

While Banijay has done big-ticket reality shows such as Bigg Boss and Fear Factor: Khatron Ke Khiladi, this is a big test at many levels for the company, said Mrinalini Jain, Group Chief Development Officer, Banijay Asia and EndemolShine India. The objective is to make the people of India believe that this is a real opportunity which they can avail, come and compete to be able to travel to space.

The spaceflight programme of SERA will be offering the six seats on New Shepard, the reusable suborbital rocket of Blue Origin, taking them on an 11-minute journey beyond the Kármán line-100 km, which is the internationally recognized boundary of space.

Indeed, any Indian citizen can sign up for the program by paying ~$2.50 as a fee that covers the costs of verification checks to make sure the voting is safe and fair. The last six candidates will be decided upon by open voting for a chance to fly on their first human New Shepard mission. They’ll arrive three days before the flight to undergo training at Blue Origin’s launch site in West Texas.

This announcement follows recent news by SERA, in which it announced India as a partner nation for its human spaceflight programme designed to take citizens from countries with few or no astronauts into space.

According to the co-founder Joshua Skurla, SERA has been nurturing the human space flight programme, developed along with Blue Origin, which also reached out to a number of countries which have had few or no astronauts. They realized that more than 150 countries in the world fall under this category.

“We want to change that by opening it to people from those countries and the whole world, allowing them to fly in human spaceflight. It has always been a dream that people knew they had an opportunity to travel to space, take part in the programme, and come back home to share this transformative experience. “Working with Banijay Asia-a company with outstanding experience in production and storytelling-will help us realize this crucial part of our space mission,” he says.

It’s something which has been unheard of-a dream that all of us have had but often do not know how to begin. Every other time there are launches or space explorations in India over these last few months, they made it among the most viewed events in the country, just going about to show how interest people have in this. We believe that we can leverage the authenticity and credibility of SERA’s mission and really supercharge it with the power of media and entertainment. We want to align with the nation’s narrative and be a part of its efforts in space and exploration,” Jain says.

Apart from that, the co-founder of SERA, Sam Hutchison, says they will also run a science experiment competition in which students and researchers in India can suggest ideas, which the public will vote for. He says, “There’s a very strong element of STEM and engineering in everything they do, and that will come across in the show.” He says this is not a first-of-its-kind show they are trying to make only for India but for the world.

Jain believes that once the audiences realize that it’s a show offering them an opportunity to dream about going up to space, it will certainly provoke a reaction amongst the public, although the nature of the reaction remains to be seen.
Brand integration
Currently, Banijay Asia is in discussion with several brands to partner the show and Jain says brand names will be formally announced shortly. Skurla adds: “There’s still an opportunity for sponsors to join in and be part of this moment when multiple people get to achieve a nation’s first or second astronaut milestone.

“We see interest and believe that there are brands demonstrating global leadership, which understand the transformative power of this mission. The door is open, especially via our global relationships, and we have already engaged several corporations capable of helping with this endeavour,” he adds.

Since it’s a show about space travel, which is one of the most progressive concepts at this point in time, it lends itself automatically to a progressive approach, be it in terms of content or in terms of how it is consumed by the audience in AR or immersive ad formats.

According to Hutchison, the team is thinking of various ways of announcing the ads. In this first round of selections, there’s a user-generated content element within the activity where participants will be given a profile as a candidate and asked to create social media content-or any type of content-to promote their campaign, have people sign up, and vote.

“New technologies are part of the portfolio of options we’re considering to create engaging and eye-catching content. We want everyone to watch and sign up—this is so much more than just a TV show. We’re aiming for the largest and broadest audience possible,” he says.