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By Geoff Bird

New Brunswick Telegraph-Journal

In 1969, the Apollo 11 space flight put a man on the moon. In 2011, the NB Space Race had a somewhat less lofty goal: Put a Toronto Blue Jays’ baseball cap and a beer cooler into near-space.

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The NB Space Race is the cheeky name Brian McCain and his friend, Jamie Allison, gave to their weekend project in Florenceville, N.B, 100 kilometres northwest of Fredericton.

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They bought about $150 worth of used electronics, including a digital camera and video recorder purchased off Kijiji, and loaded the contents into a white Styrofoam cooler.

The cooler was tied to a $50 weather balloon filled with helium, which was then let loose to climb roughly 30 kilometres toward the final frontier.

“It was pretty low-tech,” said McCain, an engineer by trade.

The nearcraft, the name for vessels that cruise the near-space, coasted upward for about 90 minutes before the balloon popped as designed. The on-board camera captured images first of the New Brunswick countryside, rising through the clouds, then eventually spectacular scenes from the literal edge of the Earth, 30 kilometres high, where the atmosphere shines a brilliant blue until it fades to black.