That's no moon, that's a high altitude balloon. Two men in the UK, who jokingly call themselves the ESA or "Essex Space Agency" (a play on the European Space Agency) used high altitude balloons and high definition cameras to send an X-Wing fighter model into space and film it high above Earth. And they have a message for J.J. Abrams, too.
#HeyJJ @Bad_Robot We just put an X-Wing in Space! Can we come to the Force Awakens première? https://t.co/Y0L31Pyriz
— Project Helium Tears (@ProjectHeT) April 23, 2015
Project Helium Tears, consisting of Matt Kingsnorth (@MattKingsnorth) and Phil St. Pier (@TurboBungle), had two objectives. One: "using a giant weather balloon, photograph the Earth from the edge of Space then retrieve the camera and data." Objective two, which was kept "Top Secret" until the video was retrieved and posted to YouTube, was simply: "Putting something from Star Wars up there."
The creators have promised to release more video if they get more retweets on their request to attend the premiere. Hope they get there, we do.
What was their motivation? Pure fandom, it seems. "I just really wanted to see an X-Wing in space," Kingsnorth told the BBC.
Who wouldn't?
