If you’ve ever played the video game Portal 2, you surely remember the floating robotic orb or personality core known as Wheatley. If you’re a fan of Wheatley, you will certainly appreciate this. An unnamed tech working at NASA has etched a likeness of Wheatley with the phrase “In spaaaaaaace!” underneath the likeness on the side of a component that actually went into space.
It’s not clear what the etched component is. Whatever the component is meant to do, it blasted into space aboard the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency H-II Transfer Vehicle that launched on Friday to resupply the ISS. Valve attributes the quote “In spaaaaaaace!” to Wheatley, but apparently another character in the game, the Space Core, said that phrase.
Valve said in a blog post, “thanks to an anonymous tech at NASA, Wheatley is actually going to actual space.” It’s cool when NASA and other scientists actually have a sense of humor and do things like this.
[via CollectSpace]
How big of a Portal 2 fan are you? Would you consider yourself to be a fan to the point where you’re willing to drop $300 on a 16” turret replica? If you are, you’re in luck as Gaming Heads has unveiled the 16” turret replica from Valve’s Portal 2 game. Only 750 of these bad boys will be made and they are expected to start shipping in Q4 2012 along with a certificate to ensure its authenticity. It is also expected to be motion sensor activated, therefore making it a little more interesting than a regular old statue. However if you think that this isn’t enough, adding $25 will net you the same turret replica, except that this time around it will come with a sound module that plays sounds from the game, such as in-game turret activation, search, auto search, disabled and tipped over sounds and voice samples. This particular model is limited to 350 pieces so you might want to hurry. [
