British teddy bears strapped to helium weather balloon reach the edge of space
It’s not often that Britain can claim a win in the space race. But these teddy bears drifting nearly 20 miles above Earth have become the first soft toys to take part in extra-vehicular activity (to use correct NASA jargon) at such an altitude.
The soft toys MAT and KMS were named after the first initials of the pupils who helped make their space suits.
Along with their two intrepid colleagues, they were strapped to a beam attached to a foam-padded box containing instrumentation and cameras on Monday.
After rising to an altitude of around 100,000ft, a webcam caught their ’space-walk’ for posterity before the helium balloon burst.
They then fell to Earth before a parachute opened automatically to provide a soft landing.
