UNC-Chapel Hill professor vying for chance to go to space after visiting 193 countries

Kitchen is a professor at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill Kenan-Flagler Business School and a five-time entrepreneur.

He’s now competing for a seat on Shift4Shops' "Inspiration4" campaign. The e-commerce business' CEO Jared Isaccman bought a flight from SpaceX's Elon Musk and is putting together the first all-civilian mission to space.

"If I were to be on this flight, this would be akin to me being in the cargo hold of the Wright brothers' first plane. The first launch at Kitty Hawk," said Kitchen.

Kitchen explained that the crew will consist of Isaccman, a St. Jude Children's Research Hospital physician's assistant, a random lottery winner and the winner of the Inspiration4 contest that he’s competing in.

In order to enter the contest, Kitchen had to launch a store on Shift4Shops and share his entrepreneur story on social media using the hashtag Inspiration4Contest.

"I am competing against Youtubers with 5 million plus followers. They ended up with 5,000 retweets," said Kitchen. "I ended up with 1,400 retweets with 460 Twitter followers so, I felt like I held my own."

The contest ended on Feb. 28, and the winner will be selected by a celebrity panel, according to Shift4Shop's website.

"There were 150 people that applied. My odds are slim, but I'm an entrepreneur. I am optimistic [that] we've got a shot," said Kitchen.

Kitchen's love for traveling started during his childhood.

"My parents were public school teachers in south Florida. The three best things for them about teaching were June, July and August," said Kitchen. "They would pack up the three kids in a wood-paneled station wagon, and off we would go during these hot months of Florida for, of all places, Washington."

As the youngest of the three, Kitchen said he was placed in the rear-facing backseat as the family drove cross-country.

"I saw the continental United States, the 48 states, backwards. I have one of the few distinctions [of that.] That's really where I inherited my wanderlust for travel," said Kitchen.

Intertwined with Kitchen's love for travel is his love for space. He began his career in 1985 by selling low-earth orbit space trips for a Washington-based company.

"My friends ridiculed me mercilessly for this. They would say to me, 'Kitch, how many space trips did you sell this week?' I was just hoping to sell enough so that I could go for free and then the Challenger [explosion] happened," described Kitchen.

From then, Kitchen started his own travel business.

"Over the next 10 or 15 years, I went to 80 or 90 countries," he said.

"I got to be sort of a traveling ambassador," he added. "It was interesting because I was the face for a lot of these countries, these very remote villages that I traveled to in Africa ... it was fascinating getting to know people from all over the world and seeing these countries."

Kitchen said that one of the most memorable places he's visited was Gabon, Africa, where where early in the morning he saw elephants playing on the beach.

"[It's] a beautiful, picturesque setting. If I could snap my fingers and be somewhere right now, I would go and witness that [again]," he added.

Kitchen completed his goal of visiting all UN-recognized countries right before the coronavirus pandemic halted most travel. His last stop was also one of the hardest to get into: Syria.

"I was one of the first Americans that had been allowed back into Syria since 2011," he explained. "It ws a fitting way to end this lifelong journey."

Since the contest ended, it's been a waiting game for Kitchen. He jokes that he's been answering every call, even the ones about his car's extended warranty, in hopes that it will be Shift4Shops saying he's heading to space.

"Yes, it would be cool to be the first person have been to every country in the world and then see it from space. But it would be even cooler to connect the world's eyes on this mission," said Kitchen. "What better person than someone that's been to every country in Africa? Imagine you're up in space and you see the continent of Africa. For a lot of people, that's just oh, there's Africa. Not for me. I'm like, 'Hey Angola, what's up? How are you doing, Mauritania?’"

As he waits to find out the results, he says participating in the contest has been "powerful."

"Regardless of whether I win or lose, it's been a fantastic journey over the last weeks as I applied for this and told my story," said Kitchen.

Even if Kitchen doesn't win the this opportunity to travel to space, the dream will remain alive.

"I'm even more passionate about going to space, and other people are too. This is just the beginning of the narrative of space travel," he said.

Regardless of when Kitchen will go to space, the traveling won't stop.

"I think I'm going to do it all over again," said Kitchen. "I'm just going to go back, and do it again and maybe catch some of the other places that aren't official countries."