What does a stylish space tourist wear during their flight into the great beyond? This question has not come up much in the past, but now Virgin Galactic has revealed a few details of what their paying space tourists will wear when flights start in 2013, and it sounds a whole lot like James Bond circa late Seventies.
Totally waterproof, yet it breathes like Egyptian cotton, darling
Instead of going hard core with a full pressure suit, Virgin Galactic’s chief medical officer Dr. James Vanderploeg says their space tourists will get personal flight suits with soft-soled shoes, and a soft flight helmet with built-in microphone and headphones.
That sounds an awful lot like those suave suits worn by James Bond and the innuendo-named Dr Holly Goodhead in the 1979 movie Moonraker, right down to the soft padded helmets they wore after sneaking onto one of Drax’s shuttles.
Please tell me you're not planning some dreadful joke about attempting re-entry...
Virgin has featured quite prominently in the Daniel Craig Bond reboots, with some reasonably subtle Virgin Atlantic product placement and even a brief cameo appearance from Sir Richard in Casino Royale.
Plus Bond got battered in the first class cocktail bar on board a Virgin Atlantic flight in Quantum of Solace, so there are some prior tie-ins between the two. Branson should probably steer clear of the upcoming Bond adventure however, since the title has recently been announced as Skyfall.
Stuart O’Hallaran
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