With $13,000, Three Brits Launch Paper Airplane Into Space

In case all the shake-ups at NASA have gotten you down in the dumps, perhaps you can take solace in those thrifty Brits and their newest entry in the space race: paper airplanes.

Three private citizens -- Steve Daniels, John Oates and Lester Haines -- raised $13,000 (£8,000) in funds to launch the 'Vulture 1' glider (which measures three feet across) and its attached helium balloon into space. Upon reaching 90,000 feet, the balloon busted, leaving the plane to coast back to Earth, snapping pictures and capturing video with its twin cameras along the way (catch the multi-part series on YouTube).

Amazingly, upon completing its 90-minute descent, the completely paper plane landed a mere 23 miles from its launch site. If that's what these blokes can do with $13K, we say go ahead and put them in charge of NASA. Citizens shmitizens.

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With $13,000, Three Brits Launch Paper Airplane Into Space originally appeared on Switched on Fri, 12 Nov 2010 09:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://www.switched.com/2010/11/12/paper-airplane-space-vulture-1-13000/

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