A mouse aboard SpaceX Falcon 9??
By tsell on June 3, 2020
The viral video sparks debate across the internet
By Trent Sell
The historic day sent Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken to the International Space Station(ISS) on Saturday, May 30. Live stream footage from NASA and Space X captured another passenger aboard the SpaceX Falcon 9, or so the internet says.
Is that a mouse?
The video has sparked a comical debate when live-stream footage of the launch seemed to reveal a mouse on the engine nozzle of the Falcon 9. Check out the video and judge for yourself.
The launch of the Dragon Crew onboard Falcon 9 was a major moment for space travel, as it is the first commercial made spacecraft to send humans to the ISS. It also marked the first human manned launch on American soil since the program retired in 2011.
The viral video spread all of social media, showing what appears to be a small grey object moving along the engine nozzle of the Falcon 9. The video appears to be captured by someone’s phone while watching C-SPANS broadcast of the live stream. Around the 4 hours and 13-minute mark of the live-stream, the video is said to be recorded.
While some are dead set on this grey object being a mouse, others can’t believe people are even entertaining the idea. The deniers say it could be a piece of ice or foil that broke away off the spacecraft during launch. A more scientific approach suggests it’s a chunk of solid oxygen that vacuum froze because liquid oxygen vented from the Falcon 9 while in space.
You can find yourself down a rabbit hole reading the twitter threads and comments. In the end, you can only assume for yourself, but we can rest assured that this launch is indeed another historic milestone for human ingenuity.
If you missed the launch, watch this awesome recap video.
