A devastated dog owner took Oscar, his beloved French Bulldog who died suddenly this year from brain cancer at six years old, on one last adventure. The owner sent his beloved pet’s ashes up to near the edge of space at 119,000 feet and scattered them high in the atmosphere.
Jacob Battersby, 26-year-old, teamed up with Callum King to launch a weather balloon carrying Oscar’s ashes, the dog’s favorite alien plush from Toy Story, cameras and a GPS tracker.
They launched the balloon from Rugby, England on May 7 and it climbed to around 119,000 feet where temperatures dropped to -72 degrees Celsius.
Once it reached the very edge of Earth’s atmosphere the balloon burst and Oscar’s ashes were released before the payload returned to Earth by parachute about 55 miles away in Nottinghamshire.
Initially they were worried they had lost the payload because it stayed aloft longer than anticipated. GPS tracker unexpectedly sent Oscar’s location just as they were giving up and they retrieved it that same day.
King explained this tribute saying, “Oscar couldn’t see the world so we decided to show the world what Oscar looked like,” describing launch as Oscar’s “last adventure.”
Battersby liked the idea that part of Oscar is up in the sky and remarked that people often look up when thinking about people they have lost. He said eventually the ashes will return to Earth through rainfall in the coming months.
Launch also served as real world testing for a GPS tracker developed by Zoomi duo.
2026-08-04 20:39:00
