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Meat and potato pie launched 100,000 feet into space

By Daniel Uria
A meat and potato pie was launched into space in celebration of the upcoming World Pie Eating Championship. The pie was lifted 100,000 foot into the stratosphere by a weather balloon to test if it would become easier to eat. 
 Screen capture/Manchester Evening News
A meat and potato pie was launched into space in celebration of the upcoming World Pie Eating Championship. The pie was lifted 100,000 foot into the stratosphere by a weather balloon to test if it would become easier to eat. Screen capture/Manchester Evening News

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WIGAN , England, Dec. 16 (UPI) -- A group of pie enthusiasts in England sent a meat and potato pie into space in advance of the World Pie Eating Championship.

The pie was lifted into the stratosphere outside of Fifteens at the Fox pub in Wigan by a helium-filled weather balloon with a specially rigged camera attached and floated in the air for about two hours.

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Fifteens at the Fox owner Tony Callaghan told the Manchester Evening News they planned to see if the change in atmosphere would make the pie easier to consume for contestants in the World Pie Eating Championships 2016 at Harry's Bar on Dec. 20.

"We are continually questing to go where mankind has never gone before - sub-16 seconds consumption of a regulation pie," Callaghan said. "We are aware that scientists have been experimenting with plants on the International Space Station to see if their molecular structure changes, so we are experimenting with pies to see if the structure changes with space travel and allows the pie to be eaten quicker."

Sheffield-based Sent Into Space provided the camera which tracked the pie's 100,000 foot journey into space and planned to analyze the data gathered by the experiment, according to the BBC.

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Bill Kenyon of Ultimate Purveyors of St. Helens, who provided the pies for the contest, said "neither the sky, nor the pie, should be the limit," for the experiment.

"This pie will be tested to the extreme," he said. "It's structural integrity will be tested against the potential rigours of being served by a grumpy pie lady from Wigan or being transported for delivery in a pie van that hits a pothole in Hindley."

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