Grieving pet dad launches dogs ashes and his beloved alien toy 119,000 feet into space

A dog’s ashes were launched 119,000 feet and scattered in space.Oscar, a six-year-old French bulldog who died suddenly from a brain tumor earlier this year, has been given one final adventure after his ashes were sent to the edge of the atmosphere in a weather balloon.His favorite Toy Story alien plush and a pet GPS tracker traveled to the edge of Earth’s atmosphere in a weather balloon tribute on May 7, 2026.His owner, Jacob Battersby, 26, from Stockport, and friend Callum King, 26, from Rugby, launched the balloon from Rugby, Warwickshire.After climbing to the edge of Earth’s atmosphere, where temperatures dropped to -72 degrees Celsius (-97.6 degrees Fahrenheit), the balloon burst, scattering Oscar’s ashes before the package descended by parachute and landed 55 miles away near Nottinghamshire.Callum, an entrepreneur, said: “Oscar couldn’t see the world, so we decided to show the world Oscar.“Jacob lost Oscar at the start of the year and it came completely out of the blue.He had a brain tumor and it happened so quickly.“When we started planning the launch, taking his ashes up there wasn’t really a question.

It was just how we were going to do it.“It felt like one last adventure for him.”The pair had expected the journey to last around two hours, but when the balloon stayed airborne far longer than planned they feared it had been lost forever.Having abandoned the search and headed to a pub to drown their sorrows, they were stunned when the GPS tracker suddenly pinged, allowing them to recover the package later that evening from a field.The flight also doubled as a real-world test of the tracker developed by their company, Zoomi, which launched last month, proving it could successfully locate the package after its journey.Callum said: “We thought we’d lost it.We’d gone to the pub because there was nothing else we could do.

Then suddenly the GPS tracker pinged with a location.“We drove straight there and ended up walking through fields...