NASA Designed Perfume Captures Smell Of Outer Space

(SOUNDBITE OF JOHN WILLIAMS' "OVER THE MOON")

SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

Space - the final frontier and the latest fragrance. A new Kickstarter campaign has been launched to sell Eau de Space to the public, an aroma recreated by NASA decades ago to help astronauts acclimate to space during training. Astronauts have reported that the space they sniffed in the airlock of an orbiting vehicle smelled like gunpowder, seared steak, raspberries and rum, which is not exactly lemongrass and patchouli oil.

Former astronaut Chris Hadfield told Wired magazine that space smells sort of like brimstone, as if a witch had just been there - which, speaking for myself, is less helpful. He theorizes that space doesn't smell like anything so much as the vacuum of space sucks trace chemicals out of the walls of a spacecraft.

At $29 per vial, Eau de Space will help support STEM programs for students - that's science, technology, engineering and mathematics. And if Eau de Space doesn't really smell like space, who's going to tell you, E.T.?

(SOUNDBITE OF JOHN WILLIAMS' "OVER THE MOON") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.