Teddy Bears Strapped To Helium Weather Balloon Reach The Edge Of Space

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. After rising to an altitude of around 100,000ft, a webcam caught their 'space-walk' for posterity before the helium balloon burst. During the 2 hour 9 minute flight the radio on board broadcast the location of the craft to a chase team on the ground.The team predicted the landing site using wind speed data and arrived in time to watch the teddy bears parachute safely back to Earth in a field four miles north east of Ipswich.