Prices, availability, and release date for the Le Creuset x Star Trek Collection – With its spacious 1.6-liter interior, the Le Creuset x Star Trek: Galileo shuttlecraft casserole dish ($150) takes culinary explorations into the unknown. The $55 Spock hand spoon rest, the $35 Spock ear mug (ideal for Vulcan spice tea) with gold detailing along the rim as a nod to the Starfleet uniform, and the whimsical Vulcan salute “live long and prosper” oven mitt, shining in the iconic Star Trek baby blue for $40, are all excellent options for Vulcan votaries.
Le Creuset recruited Sent Into Space to boldly send its Empire casserole bowl somewhere no pan has gone before—more than 111,000 feet above the Earth, atop 99.5 percent of the planet’s atmosphere—instead of just digitally launching the collection online. Sending a cast-iron pot to the edge of space is undoubtedly a crass (but appropriate) marketing ploy, but there are some significant logistical challenges involved.
At 111,000 feet above Earth, the Star Trek Enterprise casserole dish represents the United Federation of Pan-ets.
Thanks to Le Creuset
Chris Rose, a co-founder of Sent Into Space, was tasked with using a space-capable balloon taller than the White House to send the pot into the stratosphere, where it remained for one hour, nineteen minutes, and four seconds while withstanding temperatures as low as -63.4°C (-82.12°F). Rose tells WIRED, “We had to give some serious consideration to how we were going to hold things, making sure everything was very balanced because of the weight.” Rose and his colleagues must also rely on simulations to account for factors like where the pot will land when it parachutes back to Earth and how to avoid populated regions and bodies of water, for example.
“The aviation industry’s legal authorities must be informed. A Le Creuset casserole dish cannot float by the window of an airborne A380 as it departs for its destination, according to Rose. “Therefore, we are in continuous communication, from onboard telemetry and communication systems to a flight-clearance perspective before this ever leaves the ground.” Rose claims that the Enterprise casserole dish did, in fact, achieve speeds of over 300 mph during the early phases of reentry before decelerating and landing safely in Lincolnshire, England.
Returning to the real world, the Le Creuset x Star Trek collection ought to benefit both captains and cadets, so long as you can buy what you want before it disappears like a cloaked Bird-of-Prey.
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