There's a veritable animal apocalypse happening out at the world's launch sites. Last week we told you about an unfortunate frog that got blown skywards by a Minotaur V rocket. This time 'round it's an armadillo who — in the confusion of an Atlas V launch — ran directly into the blast wave.
It all unraveled this morning at Cape Canaveral during the launch of an Atlas V rocket carrying the U.S. Air Force's Advanced Extremely High Frequency (AEHG-3) communications satellite into orbit. The video was caught on GoPro camera by Matthew Travis.
In the video below, the armadillo, a species common to much of the southern U.S., can be seen scurrying (rather quickly) from right to left during the rocket launch. It all happens at the 0:24 mark. You may want to embiggen the video and select HD for best results.
I also put together these screen grabs:
[H/t Universe Today]
Related: A Brief History of Animals and Rocket Launches Not Getting Along & Watch as SpaceX's Grasshopper scares the crap out of a herd of cattle.