A BOLTON company is heading into space.

E-tailer dabs.com at Wingates is now one of the sponsors of Cheshire-based Starchaser Industries Ltd, the UK firm which is exploring the idea of space tourism.

Steve Bennett, director of the Space Technology Department at Salford University, hit the headlines with his amateur rocket test programme established in 1992.

He believes there would be a market for "short, sub-orbital pleasure flights".

Starchaser Industries was established in December, 1998 with the specific aim of winning the "X Prize" of $10 million on offer from the X-Prize Foundation in St Louis, USA.

It is designed to encourage the development of tourism in space and there is worldwide competition for the cash. Starchaser is planning a series of test launches later this year and in 2002 with a view to staging a fully-manned commercial flight as soon as possible. Dabs' sponsorship includes advertising on the rockets and a variety of joint promotions and initiatives.

Managing director David Atherton said: "2001 has been a good year for us having sustained previous losses changing our mail order telesales business into an Internet business but we have reaped the rewards in just one year."

He added: "We want to shout about our great North-west company and what better way to do it than aiding the launch of a rocket into space!"

Mr Bennett said: "Building rockets is a costly business and requires a focused and funded team. I could not believe it when dabs called and told us to pick whatever we wanted from their website to help us build our dream."

Dabs.com is an online shopping site for computer hardware, software and related products.