TCA 2010: Nat Geo Series To Follow Launch Of First Commercial Spaceline
U.S. State Department Special On Tap For Summer Debut On Channel
by R. Thomas Umstead -- Multichannel News, 1/15/2010 7:33:26 PM
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 Tour presentation Friday.
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.
"This series represents what we are all about - historic drama and adventure," said Burns.
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.
The film, produced by award-winning photo journalist Tim Hetherington and journalist/author Sebastian Junger chronicles the deployment of a platoon of U.S. soldiers in one of Afghanistan's most dangerous U.S. postings, according to Steve Schiffman, general manager and executive vice president of Nat Geo Channel.
The documentary film has been chosen to open this year's Sundance Film Festival, according to the network.
Other original programming announcements include Sizing Up Sperm, a special debuting March 14 that uses real people to represent the marathon trek that 250 million sperm take within a women's body to be the first to reach a single egg; Breakout, an eight-part series that looks at dramatic stories behind some of the most high-profile jailbreaks in recent history and the detective work that led to their capture; and And Man Created Dog, a two-hour high definition film that takes viewers back 10,000 years to trace the evolutionary development of man's best friend.
The network will also go behind the scenes of the U.S. state department in a new documentary set to debut in Summer 2010. Inside The State Department will provide an intimate perspective on the mission of the U.S. Department of State, led by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Nat Geo will have special access to follow Secretary Clinton and her team around the globe, according to the network.
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