In Brief

KFC Chicken Sandwich's Balloon Flight to Near-Space Is Delayed (Updated)

By Calla Cofield
published

[Updated 6/28: The World View KFC launch has been rescheduled for June 29. The launch window opens at 8 a.m. EDT]

The launch of a stratospheric balloon carrying a fast-food chicken sandwich to the edge of space has been delayed until Thursday (June 29).  

The sandwich's four-day flight is a promotional stunt for Kentucky Fried Chicken, but it will serve as a valuable test for World View Enterprises, the company developing high-altitude balloons for applications ranging from weather monitoring to tourism. This is the first long-duration flight of the company's Stratollite balloon vehicle. 

A World View Enterprises balloon undergoes inflation on a runway. A similar balloon is scheduled for a four-day test flight carrying a chicken sandwich. (Image credit: World View)

The flight was delayed due to weather conditions, a public relations representative for World View Enterprises said in an email obtained by Space.com. The balloon will reach altitudes of between 60,000 and 75,000 feet (18,300 and 22,900 meters) above Earth, or about twice as high as commercial airliners fly.

KFC will livestream the launch, beginning between 7 and 8 a.m. EDT (1100 – 1200 GMT), on the website kfcin.space, as well as on Facebook and Twitter.

Artist’s illustration of KFC’s Zinger sandwich in the stratosphere aboard a World View Stratollite balloon. The launch window for this mission opens on June 22, 2017. (Image credit: KFC/World View)

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Calla Cofield
Calla Cofield
Senior Writer

Calla Cofield joined Space.com's crew in October 2014. She enjoys writing about black holes, exploding stars, ripples in space-time, science in comic books, and all the mysteries of the cosmos. Prior to joining Space.com Calla worked as a freelance writer, with her work appearing in APS News, Symmetry magazine, Scientific American, Nature News, Physics World, and others. From 2010 to 2014 she was a producer for The Physics Central Podcast. Previously, Calla worked at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City (hands down the best office building ever) and SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory in California. Calla studied physics at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst and is originally from Sandy, Utah. In 2018, Calla left Space.com to join NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory media team where she oversees astronomy, physics, exoplanets and the Cold Atom Lab mission. She has been underground at three of the largest particle accelerators in the world and would really like to know what the heck dark matter is. Contact Calla via: E-Mail – Twitter