How And Why Was This Lamb Chop Sent Into Space?

A lamp chop has been sent into space by the novelist, Nikesh Shukla, and the mesmerizing image of it looking down on earth has now been released.

Shukla sent the item up into space alongside a copy of his new book, which is entitled Meatspace. Now you can probably understand why Shukla decided to send the lamb chop into orbit.

Shukla attached the lamb chop, which he had bought from Tayyabs, a Punjabi restaurant in East London, and his book to a helium balloon alongside a go-pro camera and a GPS. Alongside Nick Hearne, who works as a graphic artist, and two other friends, Shukla then headed to the Cotswolds where he set it free.

The balloon made it all the way up to 82,000 feet before the device collapsed. However, despite the fact that rig was destroyed high up in the sky, the footage that it caught still managed to survive.

Shukla, Hearne and his pals actually sent the balloon off into space back in the middle of June. Unfortunately, they lost contact with the device only a few hours after it had been launched. According to the Mirror, the tracker that was attached to the balloon broke due to the freezing temperatures as it rose further and further into the air. This led the foursome to assume that they had lost the camera and footage forever.

However, a little over a month after it had taken off, Hearne was called up by a farmer from Dorset. He informed Hearne that he had found the camera on his property. The farmer’s discovery occurred over 130 kilometres from where the quartet had originally launched the rig.

It still took around four months for one of the foursome to actually get their hands on the camera, though. But when they finally did, they discovered that there was over 100 minutes worth of footage on there.

This depicted the lamb chop’s ascent into the stratosphere, and the group have now claimed that it actually went as high as 31 kilometres into the air. You can check out footage of the lamb chop’s miraculous journey below.

As well as promoting Nikesh Shukla’s novel, the posse actually went through with this plan in an attempt to get their picture up on the wall of Tayyabs. And it was clearly all worth it because the foursome’s image now graces the walls of the popular British restaurant.

[Image via NYMag]