Yes, the image of the frog soaring sky-high across the upper portion of the photo above is, in fact, real. It was captured earlier this month by a still camera on a sound trigger as NASA’S LADEE spacecraft took off from the Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. The condition of the frog is uncertain, which has animal lovers everywhere asking why in the world would a harmless, helpless frog be hanging around a launchpad? The answer is that the pad itself has a “pool” for the high-volume water deluge system that activates during launches to protect the area from damage and to aid in suppressing the ridiculous amount of noise that comes with launching a rocket into space.
Also, NASA notes that similar to the Kennedy Space Center, the Wallops Island Spaceport is located among a 3,000-acre wildlife refuge, which consists mostly of salt marsh and woodlands, natural habitats for a variety of species, including frogs.
NASA writes:
“But how is it possible for wildlife to peacefully coexist with space operations and what effects do rocket launches have on wildlife? NASA’s launch facilities, roads, and facilities take up a small percentage of the area. The rest of the area remains undeveloped and provides excellent habitat for wildlife. During launches, short term disturbance occurs in the immediate vicinity of the launch pads, but the disturbance is short-lived allowing space launches and a wildlife habitat to coexist.”
Spacefrog is not the first animal oddity to show up in a launch clip. There are dozens of images of birds flying away from spacecraft launches. Also, there’s the famous photo from the STS-119 shuttle launch in 2009 that introduced the world to “space bat” . . .
. . . and the recent SpaceX Grasshopper test launch brought us this hilarious clip of spooked cows taking for the hills once the rocket left the ground:
We can say with certainty that no cows were hurt during the filming of this clip.
Story via: universetoday.com
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