Channel 4 has announced that they will do a live broadcast of the International Space Station's (ISS) complete orbit this year.
Titled Lap of the Planet, the show will be hosted by X Factor host Dermot O'Leary and will feature several episodes documenting life in space. The live broadcast will feature the 90-minute orbit around the Earth, linking the astronauts to the mission control in Houston. The ISS, which is orbiting 250 miles above Earth, will send back high definition and live images of our planet.
It will also present important contributions from British astronaut Tim Peake and renowned physicist Professor Stephen Hawking. Peak is set to join the ISS crew sometime next year.
Another offering of the show is an episode about the daily life of astronauts aboard the ISS. Rick Mastracchio and Koichi Wakata will show the viewers how it's like living without gravity and how this affects the body.
"Like most of my Star Wars/Trekkie generation, space has always held a fascination. It's already been an education to research this project and so I can't wait to join the viewers in finding out both the spectacular workings of the ISS. I simply can't wait." O' Leary said to BBC News.
Channel 4 head of Specialist Factual David Glover told BBC, "To have been granted this access by Nasa to the ISS and Mission Control is a true British TV first. We hope to show what life on board is really like, what happens when things go wrong and then finally giving viewers a live lap of planet Earth."
Another episode of the show will feature how mission control supports the astronauts who are on space, including clips of a dangerous spacewalk done to repair parts of the Hubble Space Telescope. According to producers, this will educate the audience with a realistic take on how problems are solved in space, a comparison to the situations presented in the 2013 movie, Gravity.
Lap of the Planet will be shown in March as part of Channel 4's space season.
