A British supermarket launched a chicken nugget into space for the first time in history and filmed its journey

• British frozen foods grocer Iceland Foods sent a chicken nugget 20.7 miles into space to celebrate the grocer’s 50th birthday.
• The nugget took nearly two hours to reach its peak in the region known as near space, where temperatures can reach as low as -85 degrees Fahrenheit.
• It spent around an hour “floating” at its destination, before returning to Earth in a gas-filled weather balloon. Its parachute opened around 12 miles above ground level.
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British frozen-foods grocer Iceland Foods sent a chicken nugget into space for the first time in history.

To celebrate its 50th anniversary last week, Iceland hired space marketing company Sent Into Space for the marketing stunt.

The company launched the nugget to an altitude of 110,000 feet, or 20.7 miles, into the region known as near space. This is the height of roughly 880,000 Iceland chicken nuggets, Iceland claims.

The nugget made it roughly a third of the way to outer space, which begins at around 62 miles above Earth.

“The nugget spent an hour floating up and around in space,” Sent Into Space said, but the nugget was “unbothered” by the low pressure and temperatures that can dip down to -85 degrees Fahrenheit.

The nugget then rocketed back down to Earth at 200 miles per hour, Iceland Foods said, and its parachute opened at roughly 12 miles above ground level.

Sent Into Space launched the nugget from a farm near Iceland’s headquarters in North Wales, and it took just under two hours to reach its destination. The nugget was carried by a gas-filled weather balloon with a satellite tracking system so that the company could monitor its location. An integrated camera filmed the nugget’s journey.

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The grocer joked that the nugget “left behind grey skies, COVID-19, Brexit, and Piers Morgan” to enjoy “momentary peace, clearer skies, spacecraft, and possible sightings of the world’s highest flying birds such as the Rüppell’s Vulture and the Common Crane.”

Iceland Foods, which is the UK’s ninth-biggest grocer with around 950 stores, specializes in frozen food and sells more than 60 varieties of private-label breaded chicken products. It sold more than 10 million chicken products in the first week of October alone.

Sent Into Space has previously launched other food into space including fish and chips, a pasty, and pancakes.

In October, NASA launched 10 bottles of skincare serum by beauty giant Estée Lauder into space for a photoshoot. The company paid NASA around $128,000 to take pictures of the product from the International Space Station as part of NASA’s efforts to promote commercial opportunities in space.