It gives a whole new meaning to the phrase "advertising space".

Cosmonauts on the Russian space station, Mir, have taken part in a live television link-up with an American home shopping channel.

Click to hear clips from the space link-up (0'43")

Viewers watched the cosmonauts demonstrate a pen designed to work in zero gravity, promote samples of meteorite and show off a space suit on offer for $25,000.

The live link-up with the QVC channel was part of efforts by the Russian space programme to supplement its income with money from commercial sources.

The QVC television network is usually dominated by adverts for cheap jewellery and household gadgets.

From the appropriately named 'Catch a Rising Star' comedy club in New York, the shopping channel linked up live with the Mir cosmonauts.

Bars of space chocolate

A BBC correspondent in New York who watched the programme said the highly-trained cosmonauts looked bored at first, then they seemed to warm to their task.

They produced their own brand of chocolate bars which presumably will also become available here on Earth.

During the hour-long programme the shopping channel also promoted samples of meteorite rock (priced at $2,500) and then they brought on the star item: the space suit.

A space suit like this costs $25,000

The shopping channel has not said how much it paid the Russian space programme for the show but this is the latest in what could be an increasing number of commercial ventures for Mir.

Recently the head of the Russian space programme said the space station would now regularly be used to carry adverts.

The correspondent says Russia's beleaguered space programme could yet be saved by cooperation with the finest traditions of American capitalism.
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