Consider for a moment, if you will, the fashion sense of the modern astronaut.
While the need for appropriate clothing for the rigours of space flight is understandable, too often in footage from the International Space Station one sees the most poorly considered style choices, including the likes of polo shirts, shorts, T-shirts and track pants.
The matter is more evidence of a general slide in standards since the 1950s.
And it would not have been acceptable on the USS Enterprise, where a smart tunic sporting insignia worn on the left chest (in all cases, it was gold with a black border) was the order of the day.
One can only hope the staff of the space station put some effort into their get-ups on Saturday, March 15.
Because that is the day National Geographic will bring us what is promised to be a spectacular television event broadcast live from the International Space Station and Mission Control in Houston, Texas.
Made in collaboration with Nasa, Live From Space will take viewers into orbit (not literally, obviously - the logistics would be a nightmare) with astronauts Rick Mastracchio and Koichi Wakata as they fly really, really fast, really, really high above Earth's surface.
From 1pm, Mastracchio and Wakata will give viewers a guided tour, showing how they live for months on the space station in micro-gravity.
As well, there will be never-before-broadcast experiments that demonstrate the real-world value of the science conducted on the floating laboratory.
And that's not to mention stunning shots of Earth from above.
With a little luck the astronauts will dress up for the occasion.
Neil deGrasse Tyson always puts effort into his dress.
Neil is an American astrophysicist, author and science communicator.
He is currently the Frederick P. Rose director of the Hayden Planetarium at the Rose Centre for Earth and Space, and a research associate in the department of astrophysics at the American Museum of Natural History.
His sartorial qualities may be one of the reasons People Magazine in 2000 voted him the Sexiest Astrophysicist Alive.
Whatever, he hosts Cosmos: A Space-Time Odyssey, a new 13-part series telling the story of how humankind discovered the laws of nature and found our co-ordinates in space and time.
The series is apparently a successor to Carl Sagan's 1980 production Cosmos: A Personal Journey. The new version has very fancy graphics with an excellent shiny spaceship to give us a tour of the universe.
• Live from Space begins at 1pm on March 15 on National Geographic.
Cosmos: A Space-Time Odyssey begins at 7.30pm on March 16 on National Geographic.
-Charles Loughrey
