Frog Photobomb: Photo Captures Unlucky Amphibian Getting Launched Along With NASA Rocket [VIDEO]

A frog has photobombed NASA's launch of its new Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE) spacecraft, which was headed for the moon. The photo shows a frog high in the air with its legs and arms out wide as the rocket behind is starting to launch. "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," said the caption accompanying the picture on NASA's website.

One person on the photo team, Chris Perry, set the camera up about 150 feet away from LADEE. Snapped by a remote, sound-triggered camera on a single frame in a series of eight or nine photos, the image has grabbed quite a lot of attention. "Our photo archive contains launch sequence photos from every launch, and none that I've seen so far has shown us anything like this before," Perry told United Press International. "Definitely a surprise to us (and a little sad)."

This is not the first time a creature has been photographed at a spacecraft launch. A bat was also photographed sticking to the tank of the Space Shuttle Discovery in 2009 and quickly became known as the "Space Bat." At the time, NASA said, "Based on images and video, a wildlife expert who provides support to the center said the small creature was a free tail bat that likely had a broken left wing and some problem with its right shoulder or wrist. The animal likely perished quickly during Discovery's climb into orbit."

The LADEE will investigate the lunar dust and the moon's atmosphere in a month-long journey, and the spacecraft is the first to launch from NASA's Virginia facility, which is in the Wallops Island National Wildlife Refuge. However, NASA's facilities only cover a small percentage of the refuge. "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," said NASA in a release.