Vultures and the Space Shuttle
Submitted by Robert Daeley on Fri, 2006-06-30 03:15.
LA Times: Pre-Launch Mission: Get the Vulture Count Down
For decades, the vultures of Cape Canaveral have enjoyed a banquet served up daily by the thousands of commuters at the Kennedy Space Center. Workers used to move roadkill to the grassy roadsides so the vultures could eat in peace.
All that ended after the space shuttle Discovery hit a vulture as it lifted off from Pad 39B last year. In videos, the bird could be seen bouncing off the top of the external fuel tank several hundred feet above the ground….