Island-based rock legend Rick, 54, is hoping to reach a new audience with the release of his next album to be played in space.

He is hoping his connections with NASA chiefs will get tracks from his forthcoming album Out There played while the space shuttle Endeavour orbits Earth sometime next year.

Ben Williams, marketing manager at Classic Pictures, said Rick has a 'close relationship with key members of NASA' and was in discussions for the project but no firm plans had been set.

Out There is released on February 3.

Mr Williams said: 'It's not the first time a NASA space shuttle has travelled into space and broadcast tracks from Rick.

'Last year the shuttle circled the Earth 37 times while broadcasting tracks from his 1976 album No Earthly Connection.'

Although it sounds a bizarre way to get his music out to a wider audience the chance came about after Rick become good friends with NASA chiefs while touring in America with his former group YES.

Mr Williams said: 'Rick has always shown a fascination with space and claims some of the tracks on No Earthly Connection represent that interest.

'He has said the material on the new album Out There was recorded with an image of space travel in his mind.'

Described as a 'bona-fide 21st Century progressive rock' album Out There is also being released on DVD by Classic Pictures which will be his audio-visual interpretation of the music.

Music in space is just one of the many events which has filled a colourful career at the height of the music industry.

In 1975 while he was in Wrexham Park Hospital, recovering from a suspected minor heart attack, he wrote the album The Myths and Legends of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table.

The same year he turned the story into an ice show which ran for three nights at Wembley Empire Pool.

In 1988 he moved to the Island with then wife Nina but after splitting last year he began touring with the New English Rock Ensemble.

In April 2003 he will be touring with the group for two months around the UK.

Endeavour touched down at Kennedy Space Centre in Cape Canaveral, Florida, at the start of the month after a two-week mission to bring three astronauts back from the International Space Station.