A hamster has survived a daring trip into space.
A hamster has been blasted into space
The rodent successfully returned to Earth after being launched into the stratosphere on a flying balloon.
The flying hamster reached a maximum altitude of 14 miles and is in good health after being recovered from the sea off Japan's Miyako Island.
The experiment was conducted by the company Iwatani Giken and saw the animal placed in an airtight cabin with the same atmospheric pressure and temperature as the ground.
A photograph showed the hamster looking out of the window seven miles above the Earth.
The balloon was launched from the city of Miyakojima and climbed at an average of 6.3 metres per second.
Iwatani Giken is hoping to bring space travel to the masses and the experiment was designed to give confidence to would-be space travellers.
Further flight tests to an altitude of 15 miles are planned, a height that would allow people to see the curvature of the Earth.