On January 24th, 2018 the online winery guide Kazzit, took a bottle Champagne to new heights by sending what is claimed to be “the world’s first bottle of Champagne into space!”
Watch the “Champagne in Space” video and/or read on the story below:
The crew at Kazzit was trying to think of a way to let the people know how useful and fun the site is for everyone from wineries and vineyards to connoisseurs and enthusiasts the world over. After churning ideas over and over, Babak Motamedi, Kazzit’s CEO, casually wondered out loud “would a champagne cork explode in space?”
After some guffaws and eye rolling, the idea seemed to gain the interest of the group. The more they thought about it, the cooler the idea became as a way to get attention for Kazzit and satisfy their curiosity. Realizing no one on the team knew Elon Musk, a different solution to space had to be found. After ruling out a solid fuel rocket, the team located Sent Into Space, a UK-based company utilizing high-altitude weather balloons that travel to near space (130,000 ft.). The deal was set.
Next stop: the remote desert outside Las Vegas, Nevada.
The team then attached the champagne to the payload section of the balloon and began inflating. Then: Liftoff, with FAA clearance, of course.
Luckily, the device had various GPS and telemetry equipment onboard so they could locate the wayward bottle. As well, a GoPro was recording the entire flight. The recovery team drove 80 miles tracking on the highway, then had to turn off into unforgiving and rugged desert terrain to continue the search. Add another 30 miles through the desert, and it was necessary to go on foot the rest of the way. As one might expect, the team was nearly exhausted but ready to carry on. 2 miles later, through scrub, rocks and Joshua trees, the payload was successfully recovered.
The flight footage and equipment revealed a height attained of 30 kilometers, roughly 120,000 feet. After extremely low pressure caused the balloon to burst, the payload started its descent to earth at approximately 240mph. The descent into higher pressure caused the cork to pop at roughly 30,000ft, where the semi-frozen liquid spewed from the bottle. It’s no wonder, the temperature had plummeted to around -70º below zero at the top of flight.
Not only was the bottle intact, there was a small amount of Champagne left in the bottom, which the team used to toast a successful mission and setting new world records by sending the first champagne into space and uncorking a bottle at the highest altitude outside in the elements.
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This guest post was written by Kazzit.com exclusively for Social Vignerons.
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