Mar 18, 2009
Posted by Ray Katz in NASA, current
Bat hitches a ride on the shuttle!
Stowaway on the shuttle Discovery.
A small bat, possibly with a broken wing and other physical problems, lifted off with the space shuttle Discovery on Sunday—clinging to the external fuel tank.
NASA officials concluded that it would not pose a risk to the shuttle…but that the prospects for the bat were not good.
Not the first time
During an earlier shuttle flight, STS-72 in 1996, a bat sat on a fuel tank. Unlike last Sunday, that bat flew away, escaping certain death.
Strangely, Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata Koichi was aboard that flight in 1996 as well as the shuttle launch Sunday. Presumably, he’s the only astronaut to be launched into space twice with a bat coming along for the ride.
