Nos jouets en espace

There was a charming story on the French news about a dad, Nicolas Morel, from the Rhône-Alpes region who made his kids’ dream come true. Apparently, the five and seven year old wanted to send their little plastic toys into space. (Don’t ask me why. I just collected caterpillars at that age.) Dad invested about a month investigating how to pull this off, not to mention a sizeable outlay on equipment.

 

On a windless day in July, it was time for the launch. Kitty, Bad Piggie, and a tiny French flag were ensconced in a plastic box for a rocket, fueled by a helium balloon. Two GoPro cameras were affixed to capture the adventure, as was a GPS in order to find the astronauts after the fact. And they whizzed skyward to an elevation of 20,000 meters, or almost twelve and a half miles! Two and a half hours later, they touched down 50 kilometers (31 miles) away in a corn field thanks to a parachute. In the YouTube video, Nos jouets en espace (no zjoo ay on espass), or “Our Toys in Space,” you can see that they landed not far from a nuclear plant. They’re lucky they landed on the right side of that fence or there might have been tears at the end of the adventure. Kitty and Bad Piggie saw the stratosphere! How will their dad ever top this?