Onchain Activation Unlocks First Opportunity for SERA’s Astronaut Selection Program 

Open edition mint for Base’s Onchain Summer will put everyday citizens in the running for seats on an upcoming mission with Blue Origin

August 16th, 2024: In a significant leap toward a more open and accessible space ecosystem, the Space Exploration & Research Agency (SERA) is giving individuals the opportunity to secure a seat on an upcoming mission to space on Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket. An open edition mint featured as part of Base’s Onchain Summer will include three digital collectibles that will serve as a ticket to enter the competition for a seat on this historic spaceflight. Incubated within Coinbase, Base is a secure, low-cost, builder friendly Ethereum layer 2, created to bring the next million developers and billions users onchain.

In a historic moment for the space industry, SERA has reserved six seats on an upcoming New Shepard mission. Five seats are allocated to nations who have either never had an astronaut or very few, including India, Nigeria, and the Small Island Developing States (SIDS). The sixth seat will be open to a person from any nation. This mission will be the first time a Nigerian has embarked on a space voyage. Challenging more than half a century of industry status quo, the astronauts will not be selected by a national space program; instead, the community will decide.

SERA is making the space ecosystem more inclusive in order to promote scientific innovation. Today, nearly 80% of in-space infrastructure is owned and operated by just three countries. The majority of astronauts hail from those countries as well.

Blockchain technology is fundamental to SERA’s community-driven efforts to create a more open and transparent space ecosystem. Decentralized by design, blockchain helps empower everyone—regardless of their background—to self-organize around innovative ideas, projects and research. The activation with Coinbase is an effort to engage a global community of space enthusiasts, make them active participants in selecting the world’s next astronauts, and offer them an opportunity to become astronauts themselves.

Aspiring space explorers interested in earning a spot on the mission can mint any of the three digital collectibles, use them to gain access to the SERA astronaut selection program once live, and then engage the community to earn votes in order to secure a place on the crew. Following this limited activation, the SERA astronaut selection program will launch in the coming weeks and allow anyone to apply to be a part of the mission.

“To expand the horizons of space discovery, we need to build a more inclusive space ecosystem,” said Joshua Skurla, Co-founder of SERA. “By participating in this activation, people will join a space-driven community, unlock an opportunity to travel to space, and change the course of history.”

“SERA was founded to make the future of space exploration more inclusive by giving anyone the opportunity to participate,” said Jesse Pollak, Creator of Base. “What we’re doing in making the onchain global economy accessible for everyone, SERA is doing for space. We’re excited for them to use onchain to push that forward — and can’t wait to hopefully see someone from the Base ecosystem go to space!”

CAA brokered the project on behalf of SERA.

More information about the mission, including additional partner nations, will be announced in coming months. To view the mint collection, visit spacesummer.xyz. To sign up for updates on SERA, visitwww.sera.space.

Blue Origin in no way endorses, approves, or is associated with crypto currency or any NFT.

About SERA

The Space Exploration & Research Agency, formerly known as the CSA, was founded to build a global community dedicated to space exploration and research. Its mission is to create a space agency for everyone. More information: www.sera.space.

About Base

We believe onchain is the next online – the next chapter of the internet that is more fair, accessible, efficient and transparent. Incubated within Coinbase, Base launched mainnet in August 2023 to serve as both the trusted home for Coinbase’s onchain products and an open ecosystem where anyone can build. Our goal is to build a secure, low-cost, builder friendly Ethereum L2 that will bring the next million developers and billions users onchain.  

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