7th grade girl sends Hello Kitty doll into near space for science project

Lauren Rojas strapped her Hello Kitty doll on the flight gear that she collected from High Altitude Science and attached GoPro Hero2 video cameras to record the journey, the New York Daily News reported.

She said that she liked Hello Kitty ever since she was 6 years old and thought it would be really fun to add the toy inside the rocket - which took a couple of weeks to put it all together.

Rojas, who was 12 at the time, launched the rocket from an altitude of 623 feet in 43-degree weather and it soared through strong winds, and finally reached its apex: 93,625 feet above the planet.

At its highest point, the balloon expanded 53 times larger than its original size at takeoff and burst open, causing the rocket to plummet back to Earth.

But the rocket did not reach the ground as it got caught 50 feet above the ground in a tree, 47.5 miles from the launch sight.

She also uploaded the video to YouTube where it has already been sighted more than 27,000 times.u00a0