A toy of canine hero Duggee from the CBeebies cartoon series Hey Duggee has been successfully launched into space.
The Transforming Duggee Space Rocket, which was named as one of London Toy Fair’s 2022 Hero Toys, travelled into space attached to a stratospheric balloon, powered by Hydrogen gas – a sustainable alternative to Helium.
Duggee left Earth from a dedicated launch site in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, and travelled for an hour and a half, ascending through the Earth’s atmosphere before reaching space. The rocket then parachuted back to Earth smoothly with both the toy and the stratospheric balloon safely recovered close to Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire.
Footage of the launch along with images of the rocket floating around 120,000 feet above the Earth in 4K definition will be shared on Hey Duggee’s social channels as part of Hey Duggee Space Week, which runs from November 28 to December 5.
For the special mission, BBC Studios partnered with Sent Into Space, a leading provider of commercial Near Space launches.
“We’re passionate about education at Sent Into Space and my little ones are big fans of Hey Duggee, so putting Duggee into space and teaching viewers about our planet is a very exciting project for us,” said Dr Chris Rose from Sent Into Space.
For those hoping to see Duggee and his Squirrels a little closer to home, Hey Duggee The Live UK Theatre Show will be coming to London’s Southbank Centre Royal Festival Hall from December 14 2022 until January 8 2023. Tickets are available now, for more information click here.
