This article was published in Scientific American’s former blog network and reflects the views of the author, not necessarily those of Scientific American
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.
Head on over to The Guardian to read the rest of my latest piece on the history of frogs in space.
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And for more on space-faring animals from the Thoughtful Animal archives:
Header photo via NASA/Wallops/Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport - click it to enlarge.