Sent Into Space is an English aerospace company that launches experimental payloads into the upper atmosphere using

weather balloon A weather balloon, also known as a sounding balloon, is a balloon (specifically a type of high-altitude balloon) that carries instruments to the stratosphere to send back information on atmospheric pressure, temperature, humidity and wind spe ...

s for research, aerospace testing, marketing or publicity purposes. Sent Into Space has launched more than 1,000 flights into the upper stratosphere since its formation in 2011.

History

The company was founded in 2011 in

Sheffield Sheffield is a city in South Yorkshire, England, situated south of Leeds and east of Manchester. The city is the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire and some of its so ...

South Yorkshire South Yorkshire is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England. It borders North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire to the north, the East Riding of Yorkshire to the north-east, Lincolnshire ...

, by Chris Rose and Alex Baker. The two met at the

University of Sheffield The University of Sheffield (informally Sheffield University or TUOS) is a public university, public research university in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. Its history traces back to the foundation of Sheffield Medical School in 1828, Fir ...

, where they were pursuing

doctorates A doctorate (from Latin ''doctor'', meaning "teacher") or doctoral degree is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities and some other educational institutions, derived from the ancient formalism '' licentia docendi'' ("licence to teach ...

mechanical engineering Mechanical engineering is the study of physical machines and mechanism (engineering), mechanisms that may involve force and movement. It is an engineering branch that combines engineering physics and engineering mathematics, mathematics principl ...

. They were having a conversation at a pub when they thought it would be interesting to attach a camera to a weather balloon that was launched up to the upper atmosphere. After six months of experimenting, they launched the balloon on 17 December 2010 from Rose's backyard. They uploaded a video of their process and photos the camera took to

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

, which went viral. As a result they started a company offering balloon launches as a professional service.

Services

The company uses balloons made from

biodegradable Biodegradation is the breakdown of organic matter by microorganisms, such as bacteria and fungi. It is generally assumed to be a natural process, which differentiates it from composting. Composting is a human-driven process in which biodegrada ...

, undyed latex. They also use

hydrogen Hydrogen is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol H and atomic number 1. It is the lightest and abundance of the chemical elements, most abundant chemical element in the universe, constituting about 75% of all baryon, normal matter ...

as a

lifting gas A lifting gas or lighter-than-air gas is a gas that has a density lower than normal atmospheric gases and rises above them as a result, making it useful in lifting lighter-than-air aircraft. Only certain lighter-than-air gases are suitable as lift ...

instead of helium as it is a renewable resource. The balloons reach on average, taking a few hours to reach that height. The reduction in air pressure as it climbs causes the balloon to keep expanding, reaching from an original until it bursts. Then, a parachute is deployed and the craft takes about an hour to reach the ground. Sent Into Space has software that predicts where it will land.

Scattering of cremated remains

Aura Flights, formerly Ascension Flights, is an offshoot of the company exclusively for scattering ashes in the atmosphere. It was launched in 2017 after the technology was first developed in 2015. It appeared on the television programme ''

Dragons' Den ''Dragons' Den'' is a reality television program format in which entrepreneurs pitch their business ideas to a panel of venture capitalists in the hope of securing investment finance from them. The program originated in 2001 in Japan, where it ...

'', but rejected an offer from

Deborah Meaden Deborah Sonia Meaden FRSA (born 11 February 1959) is a British businessperson and TV personality who ran a multimillion-pound family holiday business, before completing a management buyout. She is best known for her appearances as a 'Dragon' on ...

List of objects sent into the upper atmosphere

This is a select list of the 1,000+ objects the company has sent into the upper atmosphere.

References

{{reflist

External links

Official Website

Aura Flights Website
Aerospace companies of England Marketing companies established in 2011 Organisations based in Sheffield 2011 establishments in England British companies established in 2011