Just when you think something amazing has been achieved, it turns out there’s a catch that totally ruins it. In this case, two enterprising young fellas have sent a can of beer into space and back down again so they could have the privilege of drinking the world’s first “space beer,” and what do the choose for the occasion? Natural Light. Seriously?! That’s like having Kim Kardashian being the first astronaut or if The Situation had discovered America.

The spacecraft used was a stryrofoam cooler dubbed “The Aluminum Fullcan” (ugh) that was fitted with a weather balloon, a sophisticated GPS device and some handwarmers from keeping the cargo from freezing and bursting. Here’s the details of the flight from the YouTube video page:

The spacecraft was launched on November 17, 2011 via weather balloon at approx 11:11am and landed back on earth at approx 1:45pm. The assent took about 2hrs rising to an altitude of 90,000ft+. The Aluminum Fullcan spacecraft landed 60 miles from the launch site and took Danny and Rich 2hrs to locate by gps (due to the rural area of the landing that offered poor reception). The event was a complete success and the following day November 18, 2011 Natty Light officially became The First Beer In Space (edge of space)…what we like to call the Nattmosphere!

I’ve posted a YouTube video below if you’re interested in watching a can of crappy beer go up into almost-space and come back down again.

If you haven’t seen through it yet, this is obviously a PR stunt paid for by Natural Light. Looking at the slickness of the video, the way this stunt is integrated into Natural Light’s Facebook page and the use of the word “Nattmosphere” (double ugh), this is clearly something more than “two guys with a big idea.” The fact that they are trying to pass it off as such shows you that Natural Light thinks you’re a moron.

I guess it makes sense that an inferior beer was the first into space. After all, when America shot its first primate skyward, he wasn’t a heroic astronaut, he was a scared chimp, a pale imitation of the great men who would follow. So if Natural Light is Ham the Chimp, that means Dale’s Pale Ale is Buzz Aldrin and Monk’s Blood is John Glenn. Sounds about right to me – let the space race begin!