The frog didn’t ask to be there. 🐸
It was the night of September 6, 2013, on Wallops Island, Virginia, and NASA was preparing to launch the LADEE lunar probe aboard a Minotaur V rocket. Photographer Chris Perry had a sound-activated remote camera aimed at the launchpad. What he didn’t expect was to capture, in a single frame, a frog flying through the air right at the moment of liftoff, probably propelled by the water system that dampens the rocket’s noise.
Jeremy Eggers, Wallops spokesperson, confirmed that the image is 100% real, without any kind of editing. NASA uploaded it to its own official website as part of the mission, and since then it has become one of the most widely shared photos in its history. It was the first lunar mission launched from that facility.
What no one was able to confirm is what happened to the frog after its involuntary flight. There is no record of whether it survived the scare of its life, but at least it earned a permanent place in the space archives.