We're all aware of the various junk in orbit, ranging from defunct satellites and spent rocket stages to bolts and even paint flecks, all of which pose a risk to the shuttle, space station, and other operational spacecraft. You can add chicken to the list of orbital debris: former astronaut Sidney Gutierrez tells Popular Science that, during an unspecified shuttle mission, the windshield of the orbiter was hit by what engineers later determined to be chicken discarded from a Russian mission.
Posted: 2:14 PM ET (1814 GMT)