As far as we are concerned, the countdown has begun for the series' lift-off next fall

NBC spokeswoman

An NBC spokeswoman said the network was keeping hopeful about the future of its show.

"NBC remains very excited and supportive of Destination Mir and our development of the series will continue as planned," he said.

He added: "As far as we are concerned, the countdown has begun for the series' lift-off next fall."

The fate of the Mir space station hangs on whether enough money can be found to salvage MirCorp - the company set up to develop it commercially after it was decommissioned.

Russia's efforts to find extra funds to preserve Mir, in orbit since 1986, have failed.

This week deputy prime minister Ilya Klebanov said Mir was likely to be ditched into the Pacific Ocean in February.

Into orbit

Members of the public have, however, increasingly expressed interest in paying to be sent to the space station.

NBC announced last month that it had agreed to pay almost $40m for the rights to Destination Mir.

The network is keen to develop its own special version of the so-called reality TV phenomenon.

Destination Mir is the creation of Mark Burnett, the man who both created and acted as executive producer on the hit CBS show Survivor.

The show proved a huge success with audiences and started a spate of reality shows in the US, and the rest of the world.

Like Survivor, Destination Mir is designed to be spread out over about 13 episodes before reaching its conclusion.

Contestants would be followed through space boot camp. Each week, the worst trainee would be kicked off the programme.

The series would end with a live broadcast in which a winner is picked and sent to Mir.

Mir was meant to drop out of orbit and burn out at the end of its service on the Russian space programme.

But MirCorp stepped in to release it from the responsibility of RSC Energia, the private firm that controls the Russian programme.