Many believed that Felix Baumgartner’s extraordinary achievement of skydiving from the edge of space was unlikely to be surpassed by any human, and they were likely correct – but no one anticipated a teddy bear could do it.
This toy, which belongs to balloonist David Akerman, successfully broke Baumgartner’s record by 31 metres, plummeting from a height of 39,000m.
Babbage the bear was lifted to that impressive altitude by a weather balloon before being released with the aid of a Raspberry Pi computer that was managing its operation.
‘The launch and both recoveries went exactly as planned,’ stated Mr. Akerman.
‘At the launch site, there was minimal wind, and both payloads landed within 100-200 metres of a road in fields.
‘The only real problem occurred when we lost 3G connectivity as Babbage descended, due to my SIM card running out of credit! Thankfully, we managed to top it up before losing contact with Babbage.’
A camera fixed to the bear’s shoulder captured stunning images and video during the toy’s flight.
