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Sent into Space had an extraordinary year in 2022. We travelled far and wide, from the green rolling hills of Sheffield, South Yorkshire, to the Nevada desert’s rocky expanse, collaborating with the likes of world famous influencers, musicians, TV personalities, and high-profile brands.
We achieved a plethora of industry firsts, captured breathtaking footage from around the globe, and went viral with a 360º hyperlapse of the Grand Canyon from space that gained over 30m cross-channel views!
Here's our 2022 wrapped:
Boundary-pushing projects
We truly put our engineering team to the test with our work with BetOnline. With the aid of custom-programmed robotics and an impressive two-craft launch, we successfully placed the first bet in space.
For this project, the SIS engineers designed a bespoke, revolving coin and highly dexterous robot arm to interact with a screen hosting BetOnline’s online platform, running live throughout the launch.
When the GPS systems onboard the craft reached a pre-defined altitude point, a programme was initiated to trigger the robot arm’s programmed motion, enabling it to navigate the website and place the bet 100,000 feet above the Earth. Aided by impact sensors fitted onto the coin craft’s legs, the coin’s spinning ceased upon landing to secure the final result. Well done to whoever guessed correctly!
Here’s to more mind-bending, marvellous projects in 2023!
Influencing the Influencers
2022 saw us collaborate with a wide array of YouTubers - they’re full of personality (and pepperoni). Here are some of high-profile creator projects we've worked on this year:
Sending a 99 Originals Polaroid into space with Logan Paul
For this launch, we travelled all the way to the Nevada Desert to send Logan Paul’s artwork to space. The boxer, influencer, YouTuber, and social media extraordinaire, activated a video on the top of the flight in promotion of his NFT collection.
Check out our exciting collaboration with Logan, from space launch to helicopter chase down:
Cooking a pizza with NickDiGiovanni and sending it into space
Nick DiGiovanni joined us at one of our UK launch sites and prepared his very own space-pizza to send to the stars.
We launched a slice of his pizza and his debut cookbook 'Knife Drop' on an epic journey to space.
Launching Mr Beast's 100M play button into space with JackSuckAtLife
YouTube’s infamous play button collector, Jack Sucks at Life, tasked us to send Mr Beast's 100M subscriber YouTube play button into space.
We successfully launched the heavy (it really was damn heavy) play button into Near Space, no problem. The play button landed safe and sound, without a scratch in sight.
Entertaining the Entertainers
Last year also saw us work on launches in association with huge household names in the entertainment industry, such as the crash course creators at Fall Guys, and the best animators in the biz at Disney Pixar.
Launching the Fall Guys Season 1 trailer from space
Fall guys challenged us to make a launch trailer for season one we put together a prop build featuring a mini Fall Guys bean chilling on a bench.
At the peak of the flight, we programmed for the bean to be ejected (there was no harm to the environment with this one, we can assure you!) giving the impression of the character flying off into space. A tongue-in-cheek nod to Fall Guys’ gameplay.
At the peak of the flight, we programmed for the bean to be ejected (there was no harm to the environment with this one, we can assure you!) giving the impression of the character flying off into space. A tongue-in-cheek nod to the Fall Guys’ signature gameplay.
The campaign was well received, earning Fall Guys their most popular tweet to date and the largest concurrent player base since the launch of the game.
Launching 'Lightyear' to infinity and beyond with Disney Pixar
Disney Pixar enlisted our help to premiere the trailer for their Toy Story spin-off, 'Lightyear', in the most epic way possible: by launching it into space! A fitting setting for the adventures of Star Command's prolific Space Ranger, Buzz Lightyear.
Launching 'Lightyear' to infinity and beyond was a truly memorable experience, not just for us but for Toy Story Fans everywhere, and is a great testament to the imagination and creativity of the Disney Pixar team.
We can't wait to see what the future holds for Buzz Lightyear and the rest of the Toy Story universe!
Collaborating with major artists
In a literal translation of his LP’s title, we took Michael Bublé’s ‘Higher’, well, higher than it’s ever been before. In 2022, we launched a screen to the stars to premiere the lead single of Bublé’s latest project. The music video premiere, bookended by behind the scenes footage of Michael Bublé charming the socks off the SIS directors, served as an exciting promotional opportunity for the self-confessed space fanatic.
Commenting on this project, Bublé professed “[all] the work you did had a massive part in me showing up with a Number 1 record in the UK, but it wasn’t just a beautifully stupid and funny and wonderful idea: honestly, I had so much fun! I love you geniuses!”.
We can’t wait to help more people’s dreams come true in the years to come.
Winning a challenge on Taskmaster
A slightly leftfield request came through from one of the Taskmaster contenders - to send the host’s head to space. Thankfully, not Greg Davies’ real head, but a golden replica. In the Champion of Champions 2022 show, one of the categories was “The thing that makes everyone go ‘wow’ that really is the greatest thing”.
Ed Gamble, a Taskmaster contestant, decided that a space launch with us would provide the biggest wow factor. So, we pulled through and sent the trophy Ed Gamble won in a previous show—a golden bust of the show host— 32,000 metres into the skies above.
The result? "My head in space takes the big five," Davies commented.
Exciting stats
We’re also happy to share that in 2022:
Our team doubled in size
We delivered hundreds of millions of impressions through our projects
Found viral success on social media with our 360 hyperlapse of the Grand Canyon from space
Had more fun than ever (hard to quantify, but it’s true!)
If you’d like to promote your product or business in Near Space for a truly out of this world marketing opportunity, give us a call. We can’t wait for more trips to the stratosphere and to see what the future of Sent into Space holds.
