[Beth Sweet]

Just thought that you would all enjoy this fasinating article...

Bird Droppings Survive Space Launch
Associated Press

Houston-NASA's rocket scientists have a new appreciation for the out-of-this-world strength of bird droppings.

The orbiting space shuttle Discovery is sporting some whitish splotches on its black right-wing edge that National Aeronautics and Space Admininstration officials say appear to be bird excrement, perhaps from the gulls that are common at Cape Canaveral, Fla.

Shuttle lead flight director Tony Ceccacci said he saw the same splotches on the identical part of the shuttle about three weeks ago when Discovery was on the launch pad and laughed when pictures beamed back from space Wednesday showed they still were there.

That means these bird droppings withstood regular Florida thunderstorms, a mighty Fourth of July launch during which 300,000 gallons of water is sprayed at the shuttle's main engines and a burst upward through Earth's atmostphere. During that luanch, Discovery went from zero to 17,500 mph in just less than nine minutes.

Still the bird droppings remained in place. Mostly.

Some of the droppings might have shaken off during liftoff, Ceccacci guessed. He figures the rest will burn up during landing, when the shuttle's edges get as hot as 3,000 degrees.