Humankind has sent a monkey, a dog, and more than a few of its own into the vast unknown of space. So why not send a piece of pie?
The meat and potato pie was launched by a hobby group called SentIntoSpace from Wigan. They specialize in doing near-space launches, reports Ars Technica.
This space-faring pie was baked by Ultimate Purveyors in St. Helens and was used to promote the World Pie Eating Championship.
“This is the first step to enable mankind to consume pies with more elegance and comfort,” Bill Kenyon of Ultimate Purveyors, told the BBC ahead of the launch. He added: “Neither the sky, nor the pie, should be the limit.”
Reaching a height of 29 miles, the pie was short of the Kármán line at 100 kilometers (62 miles). It was sent up using a helium-filled weather balloon together with a camera rig focused on the space pie.
Apart from the sheer awesomeness of sending a pie into space, the organizers also had a more scientific goal: to determine whether the pie’s molecular structure would change.
Scientists in the International Space Station have been experimenting with the molecular structures of plants in space and the organizers of the pie launch took after that for inspiration. Alfred Bayle