This Samsonite Suitcase Fell 130,000 Feet From Space With Zero Damage — and We Have Footage to Prove It

24.10.2024 - 15:43 / travelandleisure.com

It’s a bird! It’s a plane! No, wait… It’s a suitcase!

Luggage authority Samsonite has been trusted by travelers for its extensive line of long-lasting luggage since 1910, predating the first-ever commercial flight by four years. Now that the prospect of commercial space travel is on the horizon, the innovative brand has its eyes set on the stars — literally.

With the help of Sent Into Space, a “marketing-focused space agency” that catapults products over 100,000 feet above the Earth’s surface, the travel brand took its reputation for durability to new heights by dropping the Proxis Global Carry-on Spinner, Samsonite's lightest and toughest suitcase to date, 130,000 feet, letting it crash back down to Earth to see if it could withstand the fall. Spoiler alert: It did. And lucky for us, it was all caught on video.

Despite being exposed to the atmosphere’s challenging elements, the suitcase made it safely back to Earth, surviving a wheels-first collision into a mountainside in Las Vegas, Nevada. Samsonite selected the Proxis suitcase for the experiment to test its state-of-the-art Roxkin outer shell, which is a fully recyclable, multilayered, and highly responsive material that Samsonite engineers and designers built to bounce back into shape under force — making the bag virtually indestructible despite its 4.6-pound weight.

“It's very strong but extremely lightweight, and in that weight-to-strength ratio is where the resilience comes from,” Ulliyada Bopanna, Vice President of Design and Innovation at Samsonite, told Travel + Leisure, exclusively. 

Samsonite

This light-as-a-feather quality is what made it a perfect test subject, according to Dr. Chris Rose, Sent Into Space’s Head of Projects and Business Development. The U.K.-based agency has conducted over 1,000 flights since its founding in 2011, with some of the agency’s most notable projects including launching Astronaut Barbie into space for the doll’s 60th anniversary and blending a smoothie in space with the Blendjet 2 Portable Blender. It has even conducted the first-ever credit card transaction in space, which was done in collaboration with Visa and Mooncard. 

Dr. Rose shared that while every launch is exciting, he knew this collaboration would be a pioneering moment for both Samsonite and his agency. Space launches might be the company’s bread and butter, but pulling off a successful landing would be something else entirely. And considering the potential ramifications of a «failed» test could be extreme — what if the suitcase implodes under atmospheric pressure? What if the suitcase crumples on impact? What if all that money spent on the test goes down the toilet? — Dr. Rose said he anticipated some hesitation and rigid rules from Samsonite to