posted 05-17-2026 09:24 AM               

Space Cover 858: Frogs In Space!

Those of us who grew up watching "The Muppet Show" are well familiar with their recurring feature "Pigs In Space" where Miss Piggy, well, um, "hogged" the spotlight aboard the spaceship USS Swinetrek. But what of Miss Piggy's boyfriend, Kermit the Frog and his species? Didn't frogs get a chance to fly in space? This week's SCOTW intends to take on those burning questions!

So, frogs did fly in space! At top is a cover postmarked at Wallops Island, VA on November 9, 1970, for the launch of the Orbiting Frog Otolith (OFO) to earth orbit on a Scout launch vehicle. The OFO satellite carried two bullfrogs, named Pierre and Tee-Nom, with electrodes implanted in them to investigate their vestibular reactions to weightlessness. There was no recovery planned for OFO, so sadly, neither Pierre nor Tee-Nom made it back to Earth to later star as Kermit in the Muppet Show.

Frogs flew in space again on Shuttle mission STS-47 in the Spacelab J module. The cover above was postmarked at KSC on September 12, 1992, for the launch of STS-47. The frogs were launched as tadpoles and their growth was monitored throughout the flight. Kermit was already a grownup frog by then so, alas, he obviously didn't fly on STS-47.

And lastly, above is a cover postmarked at Wallops Island on September 6, 2013, for the launch of the LADEE lunar probe. So you may ask "Did frogs go to the Moon on LADEE?" Well, not to the Moon but...

...this poor frog (check just left of the LADEE nosecone) likely got blasted somewhere into the next county during the launch! Could this have been Kermit trying an ill-advised, last-ditch effort to fly in space? Since Kermit re-appeared in the recent Muppet Show remake, it was likely not him at Wallops that day.

So frogs have flown in space (and maybe into the county next to Wallops), but not Kermit.

It's not easy being green... 😊

posted 05-17-2026 03:45 PM               

The flight was erratic at lift-off and the missile destroyed itself after 13 seconds, just before command destruct. Failure of a silver soldered connection joint to the pressure sphere caused destruction of the missile.

posted 05-17-2026 05:50 PM               

Next would be, all before 1953, Albert II in 1949, a V-2 mouse in 1950, and in 1951 would be two dogs Dezik and Tsygan launched aboard a Soviet R1V (a V-2 version rocket). They survived.

That same dog Dezik was launched again a week later with a dog named Lucy making it the first mammal to go twice in space, even though they did not survive because of a parachute failure.

Later to follow in 1951/52 would be another dog(s), 11 or more mice, and even a cat named Felicette that flew on a French sounding rocket.