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Hello Kitty has gone where few humans, and a smattering of inanimate objects, have gone before.
In an experiment intended to test the effects of altitude on air pressure and temperature for a school science project, Lauren Rojas from Antioch, Calif., launched a weather balloon carrying a bunch of instruments and a petite Hello Kitty doll in a cute spaceship skyward, according to the New York Daily News.
Rojas, age 12 at the time, sent the Hello Kitty “catonaut” to altitudes of nearly 100,000 ft., according to the Atlantic.
(MORE: Hello Kitty’s Citizenship Controversy: Is She British or Japanese?)
The rocket soared through strong winds and the coldest region of the Earth’s atmosphere before finally reaching its apex: 93,625 ft. (28,537 m) above the planet.
At this point the balloon, which had expanded to 53 times its original volume, exploded; Hello Kitty’s spacecraft made its descent back to earth using a small parachute, the Atlantic reported.
The rocket got caught in the branches of a tree more than 47 miles away from the launch site.
When asked why the seventh-grader chose Hello Kitty for the mission, she told the New York Daily News: “I liked her ever since I was 6 years old. My love for Hello Kitty has never gone away and I thought it would be really fun to add a toy inside the rocket.”