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'Today' to broadcast Virgin Galactic's historic first commercial spaceflight live

by jmaloni

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Fri, Nov 8th 2013 06:15 pm

Announced this morning on NBC's "Today," NBCUniversal inked an exclusive, multiplatform partnership with Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic, the world's first commercial spaceline, to televise the inaugural commercial space flight of SpaceShipTwo. Next year, Sir Richard and his adult children, Holly and Sam, will be the first private passengers to travel into space on SpaceShipTwo from Virgin Galactic's terminal at Spaceport America in New Mexico.

NBC News' award-winning Peacock Productions will chronicle the journey across a myriad of NBCUniversal brands and platforms, including CNBC, MSNBC, NBCNews.com (www.nbcnews.com/), Syfy, The Weather Channel and more, culminating in a primetime special airing on NBC the night before launch, and a three-hour live event on "Today," hosted by Matt Lauer and Savannah Guthrie. 

"Without a doubt, Sir Richard and his children taking the first commercial flight into space will go down in history as one of the most memorable events on television," said Sharon Scott, president and general manager, Peacock Productions. "Through NBCUniversal's multiple platforms and overseas network partners, viewers from around the world will get to experience this 'where were you' moment. We're extremely honored to chronicle Sir Richard's journey and live launch into space."

"Virgin Galactic is thrilled that NBCUniversal will join us on our exciting first journey to space," said Sir Richard. "In this first chapter of commercial space travel, we will help make space accessible and inspire countless more people to join us in the pursuit of space exploration and science innovation."

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