A company called World View is about to launch fried chicken inside a space capsule.
The publicity stunt, scheduled for June 21, is being bankrolled by KFC to promote its spicy Zinger chicken sandwich.
The chicken will launch from Tucson, Arizona, attached to the end of a high-altitude balloon. Although the fast food brand claims this will be a "space sandwich," they'll miss that mark. The edge of space is about 62 miles above the ground, whereas World View's Stratollite — a new craft designed to fly small payloads into Earth's stratosphere — will loft the sandwich about 15 miles up.
"Stratollites can carry a wide variety of commercial payloads (sensors, telescopes, communications arrays, etc.), launch rapidly on demand, and safely return payloads back to Earth after mission completion," World View said in a press release.
Stratollites are an initial step in World View's larger goal to launch paying customers more than 19 miles above the Earth.
As a passenger inside the company's pressurized Voyager craft, which will dangle at the end of a balloon, you'd be able to see the curvature of Earth. The roughly five-hour trip would also include cocktails and stunning views of the stars, though it might set you back more than $75,000 — about the price of a new Tesla Model X 70D.
Here's a peek at what it'll be like to float at an altitude of 100,000 feet, above 99% of Earth's atmosphere.
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KFC's spicy Zinger chicken sandwich capsule will be launched inside one of these: World View's lightweight Stratollite craft.
The Stratollite is designed to "sail" on high-altitude winds for up to 12 hours, though KFC's flight will last four days.
Source: The Verge
But World View has bigger plans than launching food. They hope to fly paying customer inside the Voyager: a Winnebago-sized capsule that's big enough for six passengers and two crew members.
Source: Popular Science.
See the rest of the story at Business Insider