One small step for the doughnut, one giant leap for breakfast pastries.
Two Swedish brothers -- Benjamin and Alexander Jönsson -- launched a pink-frosted doughnut from Norway to about 20 miles above Earth’s atmosphere, on April 8. The duo attached cameras to a vessel to capture the pastry’s journey to space, and its descent back down to our little blue planet. The captured images of the sprinkled confection hovering above Earth’s curvature are truly majestic.
“I wanted to send something that nobody had done before, that is why we choose a doughnut,” Alexander told The Huffington Post in an email.
The Jönsson brothers are by no means astronauts, but rather hobbyists who founded a science group called Stratolys, which they used to launch the project. The construction of the vessel was relatively simple, using just a couple cameras, a GPS tracker and a styrofoam box. The doughnut was coated in enamel paint and glued to a glass plank, and the whole thing took its 84-minute flight using a helium weather balloon.
Though the Jönssons are from Sweden, they launched the doughnut from Norway, where the permit for the project was free. In total, the project cost $1,134.47, according to Mic. Fortunately, the vessel was recovered after landing in Vänern, the largest lake in Sweden.
“We had to call the Swedish Sea Rescue Society, who helped us get it back,” Alexander told HuffPost.
The fate of the donut, however, was far less pleasant: it was found in pieces.
The duo has not yet revealed future plans for Stratolys after their sugar high last week.
“We've been kicking around various ideas,” Alexander told The Local. “But the thing is, how do you top a doughnut?”
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