Angry Birds: a man’s best friend. Now, the birds with emotion are ready to ascend beyond this world and enter space. Seriously. No, Rovio isn’t making a new app dedicated to zero-gravity attacks. Rather, NASA is sending up a couple of iPads to the International Space Station (ISS) and an Angry Birds plush toy will assist in the journey.
Two Apple iPads are packed on board the next unmanned resupply vehicle to fly to the space station, set for launch later this month. And a stuffed toy doll of the red bird from Rovio Mobile’s “Angry Birds” puzzle game will accompany the next three crew members to depart Earth for the ISS next month.
Scheduled to liftoff Oct. 30 at 6:11 a.m. EDT from Baikonur, Kazakhstan, the iPads will be the first tablets on the ISS. They’ll also join the laptops, iPods, and iPhone that are already onboard. NASA will be assessing tablets for possible future use in space.
Of course, these carry-ons will serve a purpose. The two iPads will augment the iPod music players already used by the crew on the station. The red plush toy? He’s just an indicator for when the shuttle has reached space. He’ll float, naturally.
