The Americans, who like things being done on a grand and glitzy scale, have put the odd man into space and even on the Moon.
But the Yanks cannot beat the British at one thing - eccentricity (and cricket).
Rather than putting a man, or even a monkey or a dog, into space, the British have decided that something else should go up there instead - a cheddar cheese.
But, in a gloriously British way, the attempt to put the cheese into space ended in a failure.
On Monday, at 4.30am, a group of West County cheesemakers launched a weather balloon attached by a pole to a capsule containing a digital camera, a GPS tracking device and a 300g lump of Somerset farmhouse cheddar glued to a plate.
It was supposed to fly 19 miles into the atmosphere (if you can call it space at a height of only 19 miles).
Within 10 minutes, the tracking system failed, so the humble lump of cheddar has gone astray.
"We wanted to take a photograph of a piece of cheddar floating majestically in the firmament with the curve of the Earth below it", said Dom Lane, of the West Country Farmhouse Cheesemakers' Group.
The launch was to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Moon landings.
Britain has 1,500 varieties of cheese which, surprisingly, is more than France has. But cheddar accounts for 51% of the cheese bought in Britain annually, and originated in the Somerset village of cheddar, not far from Cheddar Gorge, Britain's largest gorge which is similar to a mini-Grand Canyon (if the Grand Canyon was in Britain, it would cover 63% of Britain's entire length, just in case you're wondering.
Hard cheddar! Pioneers lose first cheese in space
By David Derbyshire
28th July 2009
Daily Mail
British: Cheddar cheese. Britain failed to launch one into space - on the 40th anniversary that the US put men on the Moon.
It was supposed to be a small step for a cheese - and a giant leap for cheesekind.
But attempts to send the first lump of cheddar into space ended in disaster yesterday when organisers lost track of their precious payload minutes after lift-off.
The stunt - which owes more to good old British eccentricity than Neil Armstrong - was an attempt by a West Country cheesemakers' group to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Moon landings.
A worker at the West Country Farmhouse gets ready to launch a block of cheese into Earth's outer atmosphere to celebrate the moon landings
At 4.30am, they launched a weather balloon attached by a pole to a capsule containing a digital camera, a GPS tracking device and a 300g lump of Somerset farmhouse cheddar glued to a plate.
It was supposed to fly 19 miles into the upper atmosphere before the balloon burst and the capsule floated back to earth on a parachute.
Organisers used a modified weather balloon to launch the 300g block of British Cheddar into the sky
But within ten minutes of taking off the tracking system failed.
'We think it's somewhere in the East of England - possibly in Essex or Hertfordshire', said Dom Lane, of the West Country Farmhouse Cheesemakers' Group. 'We wanted to take a photograph of a piece of cheddar floating majestically in the firmament with the curve of the Earth below it.'
The cheddar is loaded up and ready for the launch
Mr Lane said that although Nasa astronauts had taken powdered or liquid cheese sauce into space, this was the first time a slice of real cheddar had been sent.
The £1,000 mission, which launched from a field in Wiltshire, even needed permission from the Civil Aviation Authority. 'We'd like to hear from anyone who finds it', added Mr Lane.
The cheddar lifts off but organisers have no idea where it has landed after the GPS system was lost
dailymail.co.uk
But the Yanks cannot beat the British at one thing - eccentricity (and cricket).
Rather than putting a man, or even a monkey or a dog, into space, the British have decided that something else should go up there instead - a cheddar cheese.
But, in a gloriously British way, the attempt to put the cheese into space ended in a failure.
On Monday, at 4.30am, a group of West County cheesemakers launched a weather balloon attached by a pole to a capsule containing a digital camera, a GPS tracking device and a 300g lump of Somerset farmhouse cheddar glued to a plate.
It was supposed to fly 19 miles into the atmosphere (if you can call it space at a height of only 19 miles).
Within 10 minutes, the tracking system failed, so the humble lump of cheddar has gone astray.
"We wanted to take a photograph of a piece of cheddar floating majestically in the firmament with the curve of the Earth below it", said Dom Lane, of the West Country Farmhouse Cheesemakers' Group.
The launch was to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Moon landings.
Britain has 1,500 varieties of cheese which, surprisingly, is more than France has. But cheddar accounts for 51% of the cheese bought in Britain annually, and originated in the Somerset village of cheddar, not far from Cheddar Gorge, Britain's largest gorge which is similar to a mini-Grand Canyon (if the Grand Canyon was in Britain, it would cover 63% of Britain's entire length, just in case you're wondering.
Hard cheddar! Pioneers lose first cheese in space
By David Derbyshire
28th July 2009
Daily Mail
British: Cheddar cheese. Britain failed to launch one into space - on the 40th anniversary that the US put men on the Moon.
It was supposed to be a small step for a cheese - and a giant leap for cheesekind.
But attempts to send the first lump of cheddar into space ended in disaster yesterday when organisers lost track of their precious payload minutes after lift-off.
The stunt - which owes more to good old British eccentricity than Neil Armstrong - was an attempt by a West Country cheesemakers' group to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Moon landings.
A worker at the West Country Farmhouse gets ready to launch a block of cheese into Earth's outer atmosphere to celebrate the moon landings
At 4.30am, they launched a weather balloon attached by a pole to a capsule containing a digital camera, a GPS tracking device and a 300g lump of Somerset farmhouse cheddar glued to a plate.
It was supposed to fly 19 miles into the upper atmosphere before the balloon burst and the capsule floated back to earth on a parachute.
Organisers used a modified weather balloon to launch the 300g block of British Cheddar into the sky
But within ten minutes of taking off the tracking system failed.
'We think it's somewhere in the East of England - possibly in Essex or Hertfordshire', said Dom Lane, of the West Country Farmhouse Cheesemakers' Group. 'We wanted to take a photograph of a piece of cheddar floating majestically in the firmament with the curve of the Earth below it.'
The cheddar is loaded up and ready for the launch
Mr Lane said that although Nasa astronauts had taken powdered or liquid cheese sauce into space, this was the first time a slice of real cheddar had been sent.
The £1,000 mission, which launched from a field in Wiltshire, even needed permission from the Civil Aviation Authority. 'We'd like to hear from anyone who finds it', added Mr Lane.
The cheddar lifts off but organisers have no idea where it has landed after the GPS system was lost
dailymail.co.uk
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