Boy discovers bike light that has been to space and back

A young boy who found a bike light that had failed 92,000 feet from space discovered he had become part of an experiment to test its performance in extreme conditions.

Liam Mewis, 13, was walking to school in Burton when he discovered the light, attached to a parachute, lying on the ground.

Images have now been released of the light’s journey above the earth.

The light was manufactured by See.Sense, a Belfast-based firm which wanted to see how it performed in extreme environments, such as below-freezing temperatures, like in outer space.

Liam contacted the company via an address on the package, and is now going to receive his own set of bike lights.

Aaron Priestly, commercial manager at See.Sense, told the Burton Mail: "We are a small technology company based in Northern Ireland who make intelligent bike lights, which use sensors to measure and react to their environment.

"The payload Lewis discovered was a test to see how our lights performed in extreme environments. We attached a specially adapted light to a rig with cameras and trackers and sent it up to around 92,000ft (compared with a commercial airliner which cruises at 36,000ft, 60,000ft for Concorde and 80,000ft for SR71A spy planes). At this altitude, the curvature of the earth is visible."

Liam's mother, Helen, said: "Liam said that the package had just landed in front of him. He is a keen photographer so when he was told what it was he was over the moon. He thought it was fantastic."

The See.Sense intelligent light was successfully launched on Kickstarter in October, 2013, with a USP of auto on/off technology which turns on as the bike moves and turns off after three minutes of inactivity.