Frog takes giant leap into photo of Nasa rocket launch

From lily pad to launchpad — a frog has ‘photobombed’ Nasa’s image of a rocket taking off this week.

The amphibian was captured hurtling through the air as the LADEE mission blasted off from the US.

The probe was sent into space to study moon dust, but Nasa was more interested in studying the frog.

Unfortunately the flying frog may not have survived. A Nasa spokesperson said: “The photo team confirms the frog is real and was captured in a single frame by one of the remote cameras used to photograph the launch. The condition of the frog, however, is uncertain.”

Meanwhile, the US space agency has narrowed its hunt for an asteroid to capture to three.

The asteroids fit the requirements of being between seven to 10 metres in size, and further study should be able to narrow the choice even more, scientists said at a conference in San Diego, California.

“We have two to three which we will characterise in the next year and if all goes well . . . those will be valid candidates that could be certified targets,” said Paul Chodas, senior scientist at the NASA Near-Earth Object Programme Office.

The plan is to send a robotic spacecraft to capture the asteroid and drag it into orbit around the moon.

Once there, astronauts could visit the asteroid and take samples of it back to Earth for study.

The spacecraft to be used would be the Orion multi- purpose vehicle, which is being built.

NASA has touted the planetary defence capabilities the project would build toward protecting the Earth from a potential hazardous asteroid collision, as well as the technology it would boost for future human missions to deep space.

The launch could happen as early as 2017 or as late as 2019. The journey to the asteroid would take a year-and-a-half.