Bat Turns Astrobat With Shuttle Launch

I was watching the NASA feed for the launch and they saw this bat on the side of the shuttle and humorously were talking about how it had taken a little snooze on the side of the shuttle and were showing pictures of it which I tried to screen cap it. I took them for the post I did on the launch you can see here if you wish

Problem was my player would disappear when I tried to snap the full screen. It was a millisecond too late and this is what I got instead of the bat shot that they were talking about that I was gonna blog about, but with no picture no story as no one would believe it, after that I forgot about the thing......until/

This "bat" banter continued right up to when they started the countdown as you can see it was 8 minutes when I snapped the hopeful bat shot, and then naturally they shifted the discussion to the obviously more important things at hand. Now late yesterday comes work that this thing actually stuck on to the shuttle right into space

After the launch they were apparently all trying to figure out what this speck was when their own commentators knew what it was and so did viewers like myself ...go figure..

Here's the shot that they got back from the tapes that I was trying to capture but couldn't at the time as I was unprepared to snap it...

As they say, Ya snooze ya lose. Here's a dumb youtube someone made as a tribute to the "Space Bat" it's kind of funny

Bat wants to be an astronaut, clings to NASA's shuttle Discovery

Newsday.com: "As the countdown commenced for Sunday's shuttle Discovery launch, NASA officials at the Kennedy Space Center noticed an unusual black speck on the shuttle's external fuel tank.

The speck remained on the spacecraft as it cleared the launch tower and headed into space.

Upon examination of images and video taken during the event, wildlife experts confirmed the speck was a free tail bat. And the poor thing apparently had a broken left wing and 'some problem with its right shoulder or wrist.' Yet, the little guy hung on for what surely was the ride of its short little life. A life that no doubt came to a screeching halt at some point during Discovery's ascent into orbit."

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