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I watched a Big Mac soar to the edge of space, and I don't regret it

Not sure why I watched the whole thing, but that burger had one spectacular view.

Gael Cooper
CNET editor Gael Fashingbauer Cooper, a journalist and pop-culture junkie, is co-author of "Whatever Happened to Pudding Pops? The Lost Toys, Tastes and Trends of the '70s and '80s," as well as "The Totally Sweet '90s." She's been a journalist since 1989, working at Mpls.St.Paul Magazine, Twin Cities Sidewalk, the Minneapolis Star Tribune, and NBC News Digital. She's Gen X in birthdate, word and deed. If Marathon candy bars ever come back, she'll be first in line.
Expertise Breaking news, entertainment, lifestyle, travel, food, shopping and deals, product reviews, money and finance, video games, pets, history, books, technology history, generational studies. Credentials
  • Co-author of two Gen X pop-culture encyclopedia for Penguin Books. Won "Headline Writer of the Year"​ award for 2017, 2014 and 2013 from the American Copy Editors Society. Won first place in headline writing from the 2013 Society for Features Journalism.
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Gael Cooper

I'm usually way too impatient for YouTuber stunts, but I have to admit I watched every silly minute of this one. Brit Tom Stanniland, who uses the name Killem on his channel, bought and sent a Big Mac into to the outer reaches of the atmosphere and then took a very dry, gross bite of it.

Killem rigged up a wacky contraption involving a GoPro camera and a weather balloon and somehow managed to glue and zip-tie the unwrapped burger into place. The Big Mac had an amazing view from approximately 24 miles (39 kilometers) up in the air before landing at the training grounds of British soccer team (OK, OK, "football") Colchester United, confusing the heck out of the club's groundskeeper. There was something very British and charming about the landing spot that somehow helped this whole stunt score a goal with this American.

Stanniland wasn't the first to think of a similar idea. In 2012, some Harvard University students sent a burger -- though not a Big Mac -- toward space.

And in 2015, a pretty pink sprinkled doughnut made the trip. Last year, garlic bread got the nod.

Posted Thursday, Stanniland's spacy little experiment had 230,000 views by Friday afternoon. He ended the event by taking a bite out of the space burger, which looked to be about as dry and appetizing as that astronaut ice cream they sell at museums. Which makes me think: What's for dessert? Maybe a Mars bar.