Boldly Dough! Le Creuset sent its new Star Trek culinary collection into space

Taking culinary adventures into the unknown, Le Creuset x Star Trek: Galileo Shuttle Baking Pan ($150) with a generous 1.6-quart interior capacity. Vulcan fans will love the $35 Spock Ear Mug (ideal for Vulcan spiced tea) with gold trim around the rim as an homage to Starfleet uniforms; Spock spoon holder, $55; and a whimsical potholder that reads “Live Long and Prosper” with a Vulcan salute, resplendent in the signature. Star Trek baby blue for $40.

Not content to simply launch the collection digitally online, Le Creuset enlisted Sent Into Space to boldly send its Enterprise casserole dish where no casserole dish has gone before—more than 111,000 feet above the Earth, 99.5 percent of the planet’s atmosphere. While this is obviously a blatant (albeit appropriate) marketing ploy, there are actually significant logistics involved in sending a cast iron pot to the edge of space.

United Paneth Federation: Star Trek Enterprise casserole dish 111,000 feet above Earth.

Courtesy of Le Creuset

Sent Into Space co-founder Chris Rose challenged himself to launch the pot into the stratosphere using a space balloon taller than the White House, where it remained for 1 hour, 19 minutes and 4 seconds, withstanding temperatures as low as -63.4°C (-82.12°F). “Because of the weight, we had to really think about how we were going to hold things so that everything was very balanced,” Rose tells WIRED. Rose and his team also have to rely on modeling to take into account factors such as where the pot will land when it is parachuted back to Earth, and how to avoid bodies of water and populated areas, for example.

“The aviation community needs to know. We can’t have a platter of Le Creuset casserole floating past the window of an in-flight A380 en route to some destination,” Rose says. “So we are in constant contact, both in terms of clearance for the flight before it leaves the ground and in terms of the onboard telemetry and communications systems.” Indeed, during the early stages of re-entry, Rose said, the Enterprise casserole reached speeds of more than 300 mph before slowing down and landing safely in Lincolnshire, England.

Back on solid ground, Le Creuset x Star Trek The collection should serve cadets and captains alike, provided you can secure your selection before the stock disappears like a camouflaged bird of prey.