The great poet and playwright William Shakespeare's First Folio, a compilation of his remarkable plays published on November 8, 1623, has headed to space to mark its 400th anniversary this year. Earlier this week, Shakespeare's portrait was sent to Earth's upper atmosphere in a weather balloon alongside a camera and GPS tracker.
A video shared online showing the portrait taking a look at the Earth's surface from above has surfaced online and gone viral on social media. The special camera sent to space along with the poet's photograph captured a beautiful view of our planet and its horizon.
Filmmaker sends Shakespeare's portrait to space
Paying tribute to the poet, British filmmaker Jack Jewers who has made half a dozen short films using some of Shakespeare's works, talked about celebrating the anniversary in a noteworthy way by sending his portrait to space.
Celebrating 400th anniversary the unusual way
Jewers was quoted in media reports as saying, "I had this image in my head: a portrait of Shakespeare - the universal playwright, whose work speaks to everyone - backgrounded by space, with earth's curvature in the background. What more fitting way to celebrate the universality of our human experience, and how it has been captured for 400 years by these wonderful words, than that?"
