Swedish brothers launch 'first donut in space' in Norway

ASKIM, Norway, April 15 (UPI) -- A pair of Swedish brothers strapped a pastry and a video camera to a weather balloon in Norway to chronicle the journey of the "first donut in space."

Alexander and Benjamin Jonsson, who hail from Lysekil, near the Norwegian border, said the doughnut made it nearly 20 miles above the surface of the earth to become the first of its kind "in space" -- although "near space" might be more accurate, as NASA and FAI, the World Air Sports Federation, say space doesn't actually start until 62 miles above the surface.

"We like to do odd things and this felt very different," Alexander Jonsson told Swedish public radio P4 Vast. "It was really fun to watch the video for the first time. We could see the doughnut hovering above the earth"

The brothers said they launched from Askim, Norway, rather than Sweden to avoid the cost of flying permits.

"In Sweden it would have cost 11,000 Swedish kroner [$1,245], but it was free in Norway," Benjamin Jonsson told the Bohuslanningen newspaper. 

The brothers said volunteers with the Swedish Sea Rescue Society retrieved the camera, balloon and soggy doughnut from Lake Vattern after it made splashdown.

There was no word on whether the soggy space doughnut was made into a meal.