Samsung's European division recently partnered with actress and model Cara Delevingne to launch her selfie into space on a Galaxy S10 5G, hoping it would inspire others to join in and create a mass space selfie extravaganza. Her picture took to the skies last week via a high altitude balloon attached to a small satellite (so not space, but close enough), only to come crashing down on a family's horse farm in Michigan Saturday morning. Houston, we have a problem…
The plan was to have a camera attached to the satellite shoot everyone's seflies on the Galaxy S10 5G with Earth as the backdrop, transmitting them back to their human counterparts. The selfies could be uploaded on a website that would send them to the “space phone.” Not everything went according to plan. Landowner Nancy Mumby-Welke found the satellite wreckage and posted pictures and videos on Facebook (which have since been taken down). Fortunately for us, local media took several pictures of the site and posted the story.
No injuries were reported, but the deflated balloon hit a power line causing an outage for a couple of hours. Samsung later claimed in an interview with NBC News that the landing was planned in a different rural area, but weather conditions caused the incident (what they called a “soft landing”).
The marketing stunt was aimed at one-upping the famous selfie taken by Ellen DeGeneres at the 2014 Oscars, which she shot on a Galaxy Note 3 (although it wasn't sponsored by Samsung). It was a fun idea with an A-list ambassador, but, you know… gravity.
source: Android Police
