Hello Kitty is familiar with heights. She floats above the New York City streets every year in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, and she reached astronomical heights this June.
Japan launched Sanrio Co Ltd's white cat with a pink bow into orbit aboard the Hodoyoshi-3 satellite. Her mission is part of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's push to promote Japan's high-tech industry and spark economic growth, according to Reuters.
Hello Kitty looked back down at Earth through her tiny window aboard a satellite no bigger than a large garbage bin. Japan's education and science ministry funded the $40 million program.
The goal for the project is to get more private companies interested in using satellites, according to Toshiki Tanaka, researcher in charge of the project at the University of Tokyo's Nano-Satellite Center. He and his fellow satellite developers chose Hello Kitty, celebrating its 40th anniversary this year, to invigorate younger fans' interest in space.
"Through this project we can make those people interested and stimulate their scientific curiousity," Tanaka told Reuters. "We can move their hearts."
Sanrio asked fans to submit 180-character messages that Hello Kitty could deliver from space to their friends and family. The company received 100 submissions on the first day.
The popular Japanese character isn't the first toy to reach space. Japanese astronaut Satoshi Furukawa built a LEGO model of the International Space Station (ISS) aboard the spacecraft in 2012.
NASA launched Luke Skywalker's lightsaber into orbit aboard the space shuttle Discovery in 2007. Mark Hamill used the original prop in the 1977 film "Star Wars." The Jedi weapon made the trip to the ISS and back in honor of the George Lucas film's 30th anniversary.
Both the U.S. and Russian space programs sent animals like monkeys, chimps, dogs and mice into space during the 20th century.
