The lamb chop was sent flying into our planet's stratosphere by a novelist and graphic artist by the name Nikesh Shukla

Nov 25, 2014 14:57 GMT  ·  By

If you think that ESA's landing a probe on a comet was one for the books, just wait till you hear all about how, long before Philae even caught a glimpse of 67P/C-G's tummy, a lamb chop traveled all the way to space and back again.

The daredevil lamb chop, photos of which are included in the gallery below, was launched into space about 5 months ago. The journey lasted a couple of hours.

Unfortunately, the piece of meat pretty much disappeared without a trace after returning to Earth. However, the camera that documented the lamb chop's journey was found by a farmer in Dorset not too long ago.

Just yesterday, footage of the amazing moment a piece of meat traveled to space finally made it online. You can find the video telling the tale of the lamb chop's adventures below.

How did this lamb chop end up in space?

Apparently, novelist and graphic artist Nikesh Shukla is the one who, after buying the tandoori-cooked lamb chop from the Tayyabs restaurant in London, UK, tied it to a helium balloon fitted with a GPS and a camera, and simply let it take off.

Mashable tells us that, with the help of the helium balloon, the piece of meat made it all the way to our planet's stratosphere. More precisely, it reached a height of about 25,000 meters (32,000 ft). When the balloon burst, the lamb chop fell back to Earth.

Together with the video camera and the GPS system that accompanied it on its journey, it landed on a farm in Dorset, UK. Seeing how the GPS system broke down during this amazing adventure, novelist Nikesh Shukla only recovered the camera when a farmer found it.

True, the lamb chop surely didn't make a smooth landing. Then again, it looks like, at the end of the day, it was all well worth it. Thus, as shown in the video below, the piece of meat got to feast its eyes on the curvature of the Earth before finally falling back to the ground.

Why send a lamb chop into space?

It is understood that novelist and graphic artist Nikesh Shukla launched the tandoori-cooked lamb chop into space in an attempt to draw some attention to his latest book, a novel named “Meatspace.” Needless so say, the artist did a wonderful job promoting his creation.

In case anyone was wondering, “Meatspace” is currently available on Amazon. The Kindle copy comes with a price tag of ₤2.48 (€3.13 / $3.88), whereas the paperback version sells for ₤12.08 (€15.25 / $18.92).

Lamb chop gets to travel to space and back again (6 Images)

The lamb chop's journey began on a plate
The novelist tied the piece of meat to a balloonThe balloon carried it into space
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