Space tourism to be fashion's final frontier

Los Angeles, Dec 8: You've booked your seat on the spaceshipand passed the medical -- but what to wear for that flight into thefinal frontier?

Orbital Outf itters has the answer. The new Los Angeles-basedcompany promised to dress the first space tourists and crew members instyle.

''When someone puts on an IS3 (sub-orbital space suit), they willbe protected by the best technology we cam muster, yet they will looklike they've stepped off the set of a science fiction movie,'' saidOrbital Outfitters president Rick Tumlinson, yesterday.

''With billionaires funding the new space companies and passengerspaying up to 200,000 dollars for a ride, safety is important. We intendto also make it chic,'' Tumlinson said.

Tumlinson said Orbital Outfitters planned to be on the leadingedge of space suit fashion in a tourism industry expected to blast offaround 2008.

It will deliver its first space suits next year to crews of theCalifornia-based rocket powered vehicle company XCOR and then leasecustom-fitted suits to the first mass space tourists.

Designs are still in the early stages but Tumlinson said the suitswill have a Grand Prix or NASCAR jumpsuit look to them and will bearthe colors and logos of the rocket firm on which the passenger isflying.

Safety will be paramount and the suits will be made to protectpassengers from extreme cold, a lack of air and atmospheric pressureand provide life-support functions for 30 minutes at 500,000 feet, or95 miles high.

The cost of leasing the suit for one trip is expected to be about 3-6,000 dollars.

Reuters