National Geographic Channel will chronicle over the next two years the events leading up to the first commercial flight in space as part of a four-episode series launching this spring, the network announced during its TCA winter press tour presentation here Jan. 15.
The series, Virgin Galactic, documents the historic development of the space vacation project spearheaded by entrepreneur Sir Richard Branson and aeronautical engineer Burt Rutan, according to Steve Burns, Nat Geo Channel executive vice president of content. The show will follow the various tests and milestones the two spaceship project will endure towards its goal of making space tourism possible. It's unclear whether Nat Geo will have rights to telecast the actual launch of the spaceship into orbit.
In other Nat Geo Channel TCA announcements, the network has acquired worldwide television rights to Afghanistan war-tinged documentary Restrepo, which will air in Fall 2010.
