28th Jul 2009 - 00:00
Abstract
A group of cheese enthusiasts, who attempted to launch their favourite food into space tracked by a GPS system, has said the capsule is currently lost.
At 4am today (28th July) members of the West Country Farmhouse Cheesemakers group launched a large weather balloon 30 kilometres into the upper atmosphere of the earth to mark the 40th anniversary of the moon landings. It was hoped the balloon would also achieve the record for the first space flight undertaken by a piece of cheese. The 300g wedge of authentic handmade West Country Farmhouse Cheddar ascended to approximately 100,000 feet attached to a specially designed capsule, built by the dairy farmers behind barn doors. The capsule contained a GPS satellite tracking device. But the group have now admitted they have lost track of the capsule telling BBC Wiltshire: "We've been tracking the trajectory and the current prediction is that it could land anywhere from here in Wiltshire to Hemel Hempstead. The GPS isn't coming through on the web so we might need listeners' help to find it because we're not sure where it is at the moment."