KFC'S "ZINGER 1" SPACE MISSION - STILL FUNNY MONTHS LATER

This Kentucky Fried Chicken marketing campaign happened over 7 months ago... and I still watch the videos and still think it is really damned funny and awesome. Kentucky Fried Chicken (or "KFC," if you can't handle those three extra syllables) launched one of their Zinger chicken sandwiches into space (technically, 67,143 feet into the stratosphere, but let's not get picky - it's just as awesome). In recent years, Kentucky Fried Chicken has "upped its marketing game": working with design and branding geniuses to make KFC cooler than ever before. Thus, going into space was an obvious choice.

On June 29, the KFC "Zinger 1 Bucket Satellite" was attached to a World View Enterprises atmospheric research "Stratollite" and launched into the high stratosphere for 4 days.    

Their Zinger 1 Mission announcement (with Rob Lowe as "The Colonel"):


Testing the Zinger Chicken Sandwich for "space-worthiness":


The design of the "Bucket Satellite" (it has some pretty awesome features):


The Launch of the "Zinger 1":
 
(and here's a full-length video of the launch)
Total Mission Overview:


In an homage to the Voyager space probes, the Zinger 1 Bucket Satellite actually carried a "Golden Cassette" (a beautiful touch).

And the Mission Swag from their online store was SPECTACULAR...

• The Zinger 1 Mission Patches are just... awesome.

• And... If you had $20,000.00 laying around, you could have purchased this sculpture of a Zinger chicken sandwich carved from an actual meteorite (FUN FACT: it was purchased by a vegan couple in New York).    

BONUS ROUND: This was not the first time that KFC has launched something into space.