Indigo crosses final frontier

It's internet shopping, Jim, but not as we know it.

Indigo, the Internet service friend can buy a trip to Russia, where you will be taken into space - 80,000 feet above Earth's surface, to be precise - in a Russian air force MiG-25 jet.

The package includes souvenir space-flight suit, certificate of achievement, commemorative photo session, hotel accommodation and, perhaps most important of all, travel insurance. Other items being offered by what is billed as Ireland's first online superstore are considerably more mundane by comparison. They include digital cameras, jewellery, toys, WAP phones and barbecues.

But, like the trip to space, they all have a seven-day money-back guarantee if you lose your nerve - an important facility if you are prone to surfing the Net after an evening out.

The store, which went live yesterday, is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. It has been developed in partnership with Bank of Ireland - which will process its credit card payments - and SDS, which will deliver the product overnight. Euro-Commerce is also a partner.

For budding cosmonauts out there, the web address is www.indigo.ie.