Clips In Space

I love Clip-N-Seals. I wrote about them in a column, and bought a bunch from Amazon, and they keep chips (what I call crisps) fresh for months on end. Amazing, really, for two bits of plastic.

Anyway, they’re going to space, according to Seattle PI’s Insider: NASA buys bag clips, but lips are sealed on their use:

TO CONTAIN ALIEN LIFE FORMS, MAYBE?: Textura Design, a home-based startup in West Seattle, since late 2002 has produced a humble but clever device for resealing plastic bags, called Clip-N-Seal. The soft plastic rod-and-clip device has attracted attention from dairies, manufacturers and the military, among other customers.

Now the Clip-N-Seal (three for $4.99, available in four sizes) may be going into outer space, says company founder D.L. Byron, 38. The company shipped a dozen 40-inch-long Clip-N-Seals, at $7 apiece, to NASA earlier this month.

NASA won’t say when, or whether, or how the clips will be used. The next opportunity they’ll have to fly is aboard the shuttle Discovery when it launches sometime between July 13 and July 31– depending on weather conditions — to resupply the International Space Station. “All NASA will say is they’re for a large object,” Byron said.

The British Antarctic Survey is also considering the clips for use on its next mission. “Not bad for something we invented to keep potato chips fresh,” he said.

Excellent. It’s good to see good products go places. Like Space.