While it has been over 60 years since the first dogs were launched into space by the Russians (clearly the most important part of the space race), recently a group of young students from England managed to do the same...kind of. Using a balloon, they sent a stuffed animal dog named Sam equipped with a GoPro up into space--in the name of science, of course. The video is pretty cool, especially listening to how much quieter things get as Sam increases in altitude. By the end, you can clearly see the Earth's curvature and its atmosphere, and beyond that, the blackness of space.
After I watched this video, I began to wonder exactly where the boundary of space began. There's no clear point where Sam clearly passes from being "in the sky" to "in space," but clearly that transition must happen somewhere. Turns out there are several different definitions that range from about 80 km to about 120 km. NASA, for example, defines the boundary as 122 km based on how vehicles are steered during reentry. Another definition, 100 km, is based on the fact that at this altitude, the velocity needed for atmospheric lift is greater than orbital velocity. A third definition is based on the transition from Earth winds to the winds of charged particles in space.
Unfortunately there's no altimeter included in Sam's journey (or at least not one that appears in the video), so it's hard to tell how many of those barriers he passed. However, it's inspiring to see the English space program making such great leaps forwards.
Sources
http://www.usatoday.com/videos/news/have-you-seen/2016/04/11/82901316/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animals_in_space
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outer_space
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