There Was an Old Space Station that Swallowed a Fly

Email from my dear friend (and rocket scientist) Ed Lambert:

Private Cargo Ship Delivers Gifts, Ants to Space Station Crew

A privately launched cargo ship packed with late Christmas presents and space-traveling ants linked up with the International Space Station on Sunday (Jan. 12) in a milestone delivery mission for the astronauts onboard… Space station astronauts used a robotic arm to capture the unmanned Cygnus spacecraft early Sunday morning and attach it an open docking port as both spacecraft sailed 260 miles (418 kilometers) above Earth. The special delivery comes courtesy of the Dulles, Va.-company Orbital Sciences Corporation, which launched the Cygnus spacecraft on Thursday (Jan. 9) to make its first commercial resupply mission to the station for NASA.

If the ants escape, it would be logical that a subsequent flight to the ISS would include a supply of spiders. Black widows and the green lynx spiders both feed on ants.

But, what to do with the spiders? Sending a few frogs up will do the trick. If successful, it would be desirable to send up a couple of bottles of a good claret, which makes for a very good pairing with frogs leg.

They’d better make room in the next delivery for some garlic and butter, too.