High-Flying Frog Was Not The First Amphibian To Reach For Outer Space
The internet loves animals, and loves animals in surprising places even more. So when a photo emerged showing a frog flying alongside NASA’s Minotaur V rocket as it lifted off from it’s launchpad in Virginia earlier this month carrying the LADEE spacecraft towards the moon it was an immediate hit.
The internet loves animals, and loves animals in surprising places even more. So when a photo emerged showing a frog flying alongside NASA's Minotaur V rocket as it lifted off from it's launchpad in Virginia earlier this month carrying the LADEE spacecraft towards the moon it was an immediate hit. Ithassincegoneviral.
It may have been, as Megan Garber put it at The Atlantic, "one small step for a frog" and "one giant leap for frogkind," but this acrobatic amphibian was actually not the first to cross paths with spacefaring institutions like NASA. There is a long history of high-flying frogs.
Header photo via NASA/Wallops/Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport - click it to enlarge.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR(S)
Jason G. Goldman is a science journalist based in Los Angeles. He has written about animal behavior, wildlife biology, conservation, and ecology for Scientific American, Los Angeles magazine, the Washington Post, the Guardian, the BBC, Conservation magazine, and elsewhere. He contributes to Scientific American's "60-Second Science" podcast, and is co-editor of Science Blogging: The Essential Guide (Yale University Press). He enjoys sharing his wildlife knowledge on television and on the radio, and often speaks to the public about wildlife and science communication. Follow Jason G. Goldman on Twitter
