Father-son duo send toy train into space

Cool dad alert.

Ron Fugelseth helped his 4-year-old son, Jayden, send his favourite toy train, named Stanley, into space.

Fugelseth was inspired by a video of a Lego astronaut in flight:

"When I saw that Lego video, I thought, 'I should totally see if I could get Stanley to space,'" he told MSNBC.com.

"I figured if two high school kids can send a Lego man to space, then I, as a grown man, can make Stanley to space," Fugelseth told the Santa Cruz Sentinel.

A weather balloon carried the toy into the earth's stratosphere. An HD camera attached to the train captured the 60-minute, 18-mile ascent and 20-minute return to earth. And an old cell phone with GPS helped the father/son duo find Stanley in a corn field 27 miles away.

The innovative dad outlined his safety precautions on YouTube, including a call to the FAA to ensure no planes would fly into its path and the careful wind research needed to ensure Stanley would land in a field.

Fugelseth, the creative director for California-based Oxygen Productions, then Photoshopped the video to bring the train to life.

"My 4 year old and Stanley are inseparable like Calvin and Hobbes. He's been attached to him since he was two, and they play, sleep and do everything together. I animated Stanley's face with After Effects and Photoshop to bring him to life how I imagine my son sees him," Fugelseth wrote on YouTube.

Watch the toy's incredible journey below:

Fugelseth told the Santa Cruz Sentinel that Jayden and his 2-year-old sister, Izzy, were bursting with excitement at the launch and the recovery of the toy.

"They just went crazy," Fugelseth said of his kids' reactions to the video. "They've watched it a million times now…One thing that Jayden said was, 'I wish I was a train, so I could go to space.'"