A British teacher said her elementary school class launched a potato 17 miles into space before it returned to Earth after a 140-minute expedition.

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Hilary Gibbard, who teaches 60 pupils ages 7 to 10 at Landscove village primary school near Ashburton, England, said the children dressed the spud like Santa Claus, attached it to a weather balloon and launched it in a space capsule made from soda bottles in Devon, England, The Mirror reported Monday.

Gibbard said the craft, nicknamed Spudnik 2, began its descent when the balloon burst at a height of 19,000 feet and a parachute was deployed.

The teacher said the craft landed about 140 miles away at a Christmas tree farm, the logical location for a Santa-suited starch.