2014 has definitely been Ford Mustang’s year so far, and it appears that the 50 years celebrations are still going strong. While previously we saw a superb Mustang sculpture, now it’s time for the first Mustang ever to be sent into space. Well, it is not a real-life Mustang, it’s a Revell model kit, but don’t imagine that just because we’re talking about a toy it was an easy thing to do.
Earlier this month, San Francisco-area Ford zone sales manager Michael Sego, Steve Kubitz, managing partner of Big Valley Ford in Stockton, California, and some of their friends became the first to sent a Mustang outside the earth’s atmosphere.
“We wanted to celebrate 50 years of Mustang and the impending arrival of the all-new 2015 Mustang by doing something really special. Mustang has always been about getting behind the wheel and hitting the open road, but we decided to take to the open sky,” said Sego.
Inspired by Austrian skydiver Felix Baumgartner, the team acquired a high-altitude weather baloon and fitted it with a rod to the side instrumentation box suspended below it. On the rod they mounted one of the Revell Mustang model kits, along with a pair of small action cameras to record the event.
74 minutes after its release, the balloon reached an altitude of 110,000 feet or 21 miles (34 kilometers). At that point, the car and the instrumentation box including a GPS location transmitter came back down and were found six hours after launch in a field.
Head down to watch the Mustang’s space adventure.
By John Halas
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