While the mission was being undertaken, the management of MirCorp was able to announce a number of commercial contracts, including that of the agreement with NBC and Mark Burnett.
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MirCorp's CEO Jeffrey Manber later stated “ we failed to survive but proved the business model, and in the long-term that will be just as important.”
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MirCorp and RSC Energia were the first to use this strategy for space exploration, which has emerged again more recently with Sir Richard Branson’s announcement to market Scaled Composites StarShip suborbital flights.
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It also signed with television producer Mark Burnett (producer of the Survivor reality show) and with NBC, to produce a reality show “Destination Mir,” where the winner would travel to space.
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The founders recruited space entrepreneur Jeffrey Manber, who had helped negotiate the first contract between the Soviet Union and NASA on space interests, and had also represented the huge Russian space company RSC Energia in its American dealings during the 1990s.
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With the help of RSC Energia, MirCorp and later Space Adventures, he became the first space tourist to visit the International Space Station.