A Siberian start-up has launched its own more modest motor satellite to the space. This happens just after an year when Elon Musk sent his Tesla car into space.

Tesla’s was a space-suited Starman mannequin whereas the ToSky start-up sent up a smaller dummy in the likeness of Dmitry Rogozin. The users of Internet picked Mr Rogozin over other candidates. This includes a dummy of the late Stephen Hawking or a cactus, Radio Liberty’s Siberian news site reports.

The model was Mr Rogozin’s figure, seated at the wheel of the Lada. This has reached an altitude of 20km (12.5 miles) before landing 150km from the launch site with the help of a parachute.

The Tomsk-based start-up says that they can learn more about automatic stratostats. This can spend a long time in the stratosphere.

Nikita Cheban, the project director told the Interfax Siberia news agency that the test flight gathered data that will allow ToSky to design vessels that can “spend more time in the stratosphere, carry heavier payloads, and develop better manoeuverability”.

A promotional video was released by the group. The video was called “We sent Rogozin into near space!”. This featured a smiling Rogozin cardboard cut-out flying above the clouds in a bright-red Lada before making a flawless landing in a field.

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