The Confused.com toy mascot, Brian the Robot, was launched into space from a location at Old Gore, Ross-on-Wye.

In celebration of British Astronaut Tim Peake’s landmark flight to the International Space Station, the talking robot boldly went where no toy had gone before - capturing stunning views of the Earth.

Laura Buchan, Head of PR from Confused.com, launched Brian into space along with David Akerman, from his home in Old Gore.

With all eyes focused skyward in 2015 - with the dramatic supermoon and lunar eclipse and Nasa’s annoucement of water on Mars - interest in space travel has never been higher. To celebrate a big year of space exploration, Confused.com teamed with a high altitude ballooning expert to prep and prime their lovable mascot for a one-off mission into space. Taking off from a secret location in Ross-on-Wye (not Kazakhstan where Tim Peake’s occurred), Brian travelled at a speed of 5.5m per second while attached to a hydrogen weather balloon.

Brian reached dizzying heights of 35,200 metres - three times the height of a commercial airplane - as he successfully became the first ever price-comparison mascot to breach the Earth’s stratosphere, taking in stunning vistas as his reward. The journey took one hour and 40 minutes to complete. Then began the race to his landing point, as Brian’s co-ordinates were traced to a location near Uttoxeter, Staffordshire.