Too much time on their hands

For the first time ever, TV's beloved "Star Trek" captains James T. Kirk and Jean-Luc Picard will go boldy into near-space for real —in action figure form.

A group of Trekkies has banded together to launch dolls of the two starship captains, as well as other key Trek characters and models of Star Trek spacecraft, to the edge of space using a high-altitude balloon.
"Picard and Kirk are the greatest starship captains ever to exist and they've never been to space in reality, so I think it's about time we bring them there," said Logan Kugler, an entrepreneur and space enthusiast who launched a campaign on the crowd-funding site Kickstarter to raise money for the project.

Kugler and his collaborators raised $6,193 through Kickstarter. They plan to use the money to loft six action figures, two starship models and five cameras to about 120,000 feet (37,000 meters) inside a balloon lifting off from Champaign, Ill.