Bat hitches ride aboard space shuttle
A plucky bat has boldly gone where no bat has gone before after hitching a one-way ride aboard the space shuttle.
NASA mission controllers spotted the bat clinging to the shuttle Discovery’s fuel tank in the final preparations for Sunday’s launch from Cape Canaveral in Florida.
The bat was still hanging on to the rocket as it soared spacewards and was presumed to have been burnt up shortly afterwards.
A wildlife expert said the free tail bat appeared to have a broken left wing and a problem with its right shoulder or wrist that prevented it from flying away.
Kennedy Space Center shares Merritt Island with a nature reserve and NASA usually scares birds and other animals away from the launch pad with sirens.
The bat was not the first to attach itself to a shuttle during the final countdown. In 1998 one landed on the shuttle Columbia as it prepared to blast off but it flew away as the engines ignited.