The Frog That Got Caught In the Crossfire of a Rocket Launch

On Friday evening, NASA’s Minotaur V rocket blasted off from its launchpad at a spaceport in Virginia, carrying the LADEE spacecraft on the first leg of its trip from Earth to the moon. The scene that resulted was fiery. It was inspiring. It was epic. 

It was also, however, not without its casualties. 

The picture above, captured on Friday by one of the remote cameras NASA had set up for the big launch, captured a creature that found itself, alas, caught in the crossfire of humanity’s drive to explore: a frog. A very unfortunate frog. Launch pads, you see, are generally built near marshes and ponds whose water can absorb the flames of a rocket’s ignition. And this little guy was in the wrong place at the very, very wrong time.

Read more. [Image: NASA/Wallops/Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport]