Teens Launch Lego Man Way, Way Up There

Weather balloons can pose danger to airplanes, officials advise

(NEWSER) - Lego men in space —like the one recently sent 14 miles above sea level by two Toronto teens—may be cool, but pilots have a warning for would-be copycats: Your weather balloon could endanger airplanes, reports the Toronto Star . Were a plane to fly into a large balloon, the damage could be the equivalent of hitting a bird. And if the balloon was sucked into an engine, things could get ugly, warned air safety experts. More»

Balloon/camera contraption cost Robert Harrison just $750

(NEWSER) - Armed with a few hundred dollars and a dream, a British man has come up with a way to take photos of the earth from space that would make NASA proud—and have. “A guy phoned up who worked for NASA. He wanted to know how the hell we did it,” Robert Harrison tells the Times . “They said it would have cost them millions of dollars.” But a slim $750 got Harrison the meteorological balloon, digital camera, GPS device, duct tape, and home insulation he needed to take the shots. More»

(NEWSER) - A group of Spanish high-school students has successfully sent a balloon and camera package 20 miles above the surface of the Earth, scoring stunning pictures of space, the Telegraph reports—and on a budget of about $82. “We were overwhelmed at our results, especially the photographs,” the team’s 18-year-old leader said. “To send our handmade craft to the edge of space is incredible.” More»

Rovio's app sequel will launch March 22

(NEWSER) - The Angry Birds are lifting off into outer space. The upcoming sequel of the blockbuster app franchise—which has logged more than 500 million downloads—will see the belligerent feathered creatures exploring the vast realm beyond planet Earth. Angry Birds Space will launch March 22, reports USA Today's Game Hunters blog . More»

It will push defunct satellites into the atmosphere to burn up

(NEWSER) - Switzerland is on a mean cleaning bender: The fastidious folks at the Swiss Space Center are building a "janitor satellite" that will grab space junk orbiting the Earth and push it into the atmosphere to burn up, the AP reports. The first of these spacecraft, the $11 million "CleanSpace One," is currently under construction and should launch in three to five years, the scientists announced today. More»