Overview
- The pair launched the helium‑filled balloon from Rugby on May 7, 2026 and it climbed to about 119,000 feet before bursting and releasing the ashes; the payload parachuted down and was found roughly 55 miles away in Nottinghamshire.
- The recovered payload contained Oscar’s ashes, his favourite Toy Story alien plush, several onboard cameras and a Zoomi GPS tracker housed in a custom‑built box.
- The trackers stopped reporting during a longer‑than‑expected flight and the men feared the package was lost until an unexpected evening GPS ping led them to the field where they recovered the payload.
- The founders say the recovery proved Zoomi’s device worked in a high‑altitude, low‑temperature environment with reported peak temperatures near −72°C, giving the recently launched pet‑tech firm a real‑world validation.
- The mission mixes personal grief and DIY near‑space engineering and sits alongside a growing market for suborbital ‘space burial’ services offered by firms such as Aura Flights and others that send ashes up on balloons or short flights before they return to Earth.