PlayStation Australia today announced mission complete as the courageous Sackboy returned safely from his trip to (near) space. Launched around 50 kilometres outside West Wyalong and sent high into the ‘sackosphere’, the hessian hero has brought back his own incredible bird’s eye view pictures of our own little big planet.
With perfect launch conditions, Sackboy’s meteorological balloon was filled with five cubic metres of helium, expanding to a 30 foot diameter and soaring to 95,000 feet before popping. The launch team made sure they could follow the journey by fitting the flight rigging with GPS and wireless modules, capable of tracking Sackboy up to 32 kilometres.
The journey was captured perfectly using four Sony Action Cams, stitched together on his flight rigging to create a 360 degree panoramic view.
The launch team eagerly tracked Sackboy’s progress, watching as he zoomed upwards at over 15 feet per second as a north-north westerly breeze pushed him up to speeds over 90 km/h. Racing through fields to Sackboy’s landing zone, they found him safe and sound in a wheat field over 69 kilometres away from the launch site.
As part of Project (Near) Space, over 1000 fans participated in the social media initiative and were able to use strategic clues and tips provided on PlayStation Australia’s Facebook page to locate, using skill and logic, where the brave Sackboy would land.
Sackboy couldn’t have made the journey without the help of his Facebook fans, who created their own design submissions for his maiden voyage spacesuit. The winning design from Tom Fox provided him protection from the elements and kept him in contact with Mission Control.
With two feet back on the ground, Sackboy is now preparing for his next customisable adventure with LittleBigPlanet Karting™ on PlayStation®3 (PS3™), that zooms in store next week, 8th November. This fast-paced karting fun will have both Sackboy and fans race the unexpected, this time on land: behind the wheel to race through fun-filled tracks, and battle in karting arenas.
You can see Sackboy’s full Project (Near) Space adventure in high definition with footage captured in flight in the youtube video below:-















18 CommentsAdd Yours
1
Posted on 2 November, 2012 at 1:52 am by Dark_Overlord
Next he should try the Marianas Trench
2
Posted on 2 November, 2012 at 2:52 am by kieranmarsh
id like to see him using our great new singstar icon, sackboy should try it, he might like it!!
3
Posted on 2 November, 2012 at 5:50 am by chrisboers
Nicely done!
Also, it gives a really nice view of earth. I never knew the AU side of Earth was this wobbly, chaning from a globe to the reverse (sides of the earth pointing up) 
It’s a fun time, here at the blog lately, with the Halloween trailers, the ‘To Michael part 2′ commercial, and now this one! Nice to see there is still time and budget left to support this type of activity
More of this, please!
4
Posted on 2 November, 2012 at 6:03 am by quackerzacher
Well now i need a LBP space DLC
5
Posted on 2 November, 2012 at 8:25 am by Wild_Guns
That was dangerous XD
6
Posted on 2 November, 2012 at 10:17 am by TINTINTB303
Felix Baumgartner eat your heart out
7
Posted on 2 November, 2012 at 10:27 am by TINTINTB303
Oooh poor Sackboy!!
I just noticed that 31/32 seconds into the video it looks like a doctor is preparing to do a very personal examination on our brave hero!!
He must have passed the pre-mission medical though
8
Posted on 2 November, 2012 at 10:55 am by VitalogyPJ
Gamers: hey mr sony, how about reducing your stuff prices to fair ones instead of overprice stuff just to spend money on futile stuff like what we just saw?
mr sony: *thinking* I don’t think so! We want you to spend your hard earned money on our overpriced products so we can spend it all on cr4p like that *evil laugh*
9
Posted on 2 November, 2012 at 11:07 am by TINTINTB303
@VitalogyPJ
To be fair I can’t see the above adventure being all that costly.
The only thing I imagine Sony didn’t have to hand was the weather balloon and they are relatively cheap.
Anyway it’s called advertising. Companies like Sony spend LOADS of money on that so I would hardly call the above advertising “futile”.
10
Posted on 2 November, 2012 at 11:20 am by Carl-G
That was BRILLIANT!:D It should of made Worldwide News to!:D But then again people seem to ignore any PlayStation News in the Media:-/ If it was MicroSoft that did it with one of their gaming characters then EVERY News place would have it on 24/7…Zzzzzzzzzzz, YAWN…
11
Posted on 2 November, 2012 at 12:25 pm by dogwalker4000
All we need now is that costume in game
12
Posted on 2 November, 2012 at 1:58 pm by Pesico
Awesome stuff. Sackboy is brave!
13
Posted on 2 November, 2012 at 4:26 pm by Hymeleon
THAT – WAS – COOL out there. I wonder what model of cameras were used?
14
Posted on 2 November, 2012 at 10:28 pm by CreditDue
Maybe you could send him to the bottom of the ocean next…..and keep him there?
15
Posted on 3 November, 2012 at 12:27 pm by MajorWeirdo
Nice work Sony !!
16
Posted on 3 November, 2012 at 3:49 pm by sam_w
Cool idea!
17
Posted on 4 November, 2012 at 5:43 pm by kieranmarsh
~ Copy & Paste If You Agree ~
As a sign of my frustration with the store and blog staff, And anger at the way we are treated and scammed I will be boycotting the store and convincing others to do the same until you show us the respect we deserve as your paying customers.
Examples being,
– Blog staff ignoring important or useful questions.
– Replying to the same questions, sometimes on the same page.
– Inability to provide us with information (TWD, CS:GO)
– Promoting content, then on release saying its delayed.
– Promoting deals that don’t work and don’t fix (Dead Island).
– Releasing Content, then announce a discount a week later (WWE13).
– 95% of the PS2 games are garbage, release good games.
– Charging ridiculous amounts for digital games.
– Charging more than the US Store, Content should be equally priced.
– Forced to have a Singstar icon on the XMB.
– Feel free to add more
- SINGSTAR
- SINGSTAR
In the words of the late Owen Hart
“Enough is enough and its time for a change”
~ Copy & Paste If You Agree ~
18
Posted on 4 November, 2012 at 5:44 pm by kieranmarsh
~ Copy & Paste If You Agree ~
As a sign of my frustration with the store and blog staff, And anger at the way we are treated and scammed I will be boycotting the store and convincing others to do the same until you show us the respect we deserve as your paying customers.
Examples being,
– Blog staff ignoring important or useful questions.
– Replying to the same questions, sometimes on the same page.
– Inability to provide us with information (TWD, CS:GO)
– Promoting content, then on release saying its delayed.
– Promoting deals that don’t work and don’t fix (Dead Island).
– Releasing Content, then announce a discount a week later (WWE13).
– 95% of the PS2 games are garbage, release good games.
– Charging ridiculous amounts for digital games.
– Charging more than the US Store, Content should be equally priced.
– Forced to have a Singstar icon on the XMB.
– Feel free to add more
- SINGSTAR
- SINGSTAR
- AND AGAIN SINGSTAR!!!
In the words of the late Owen Hart
“Enough is enough and its time for a change”
~ Copy & Paste If You Agree ~
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