One of the unmanned Moon probes was partially stripped and brought back by an Apollo crew. It turned out that it wasn't
disinfected properly before it was sent to the Moon.
Anyway, there was staph on the pieces. They were able to bring the staph back to life. Not a virus, but it does bring
to light the hardiness of the more simple life forms.
Didn't earthworms survive Columbia? A virus in a deep crevice in a meteor...
And didn't the deportation of telephone sanitizers lead to the death of an entire planetary civilization?
"First class accomodations in the science-lab deck."
Let's see, what's the physiological makeup of an earthworm anyway - does it posses a cardiovascular system, a skeletal framework, a brain?
What was it/what were they 'riding in' at the time of the accident?
The equivalent of a small-butter tub or better?