This
story was updated at 10:32 p.m. EDT.
A small bat
that was spotted blasting off with the space shuttle Sunday and clinging to the
back side of Discovery's external fuel tank apparently held on throughout the
launch.
NASA hoped
the bat would fly away before the spacecraft's Sunday evening liftoff, but photos
from the launch now show the bat holding on for dear life throughout the
fiery ride.
"He
did change the direction he was pointing from time to time throughout countdown
but ultimately never flew away," states a NASA memo obtained by SPACE.com.
"Infrared imagery shows he
was alive and not frozen like many would think ... Liftoff imagery analysis
confirmed that he held on until at least the vehicle cleared [the] tower before
we lost sight of him."
Officials
at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla., where Discovery
launched from a seaside pad, said the bat's outlook after launch appears grim.
"Based on
images and video, a wildlife expert who provides support to the center said the
small creature was a free tail bat that likely had a broken left wing and some
problem with its right shoulder or wrist," NASA officials said Tuesday. "The
animal likely perished quickly during Discovery's climb into orbit."
Because the Kennedy Space Center is also home to Florida's Merritt Island
National Wildlife Refuge, NASA's launch pads are equipped with several
countermeasures, including warning sirens, to ward off birds and other
wildlife. NASA also relies on radar to make sure large flocks of birds won't be
struck by the shuttle during liftoff.
But the bat
on Discovery's tank did not budge, even after engine ignition.
The bat was perched between one quarter and one third of the way up on the north
side of the fuel tank, which is the side that faces away from the orbiter.
NASA estimated the surface temperature of the tank at that location was between
58 and 70 degrees Fahrenheit, even though the canister was filled with
super-cold liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen.
In the
hours before Discovery's liftoff, NASA's Final Inspection Team (called the
"ICE team") investigated whether the creature would pose a risk
to the shuttle if its body impacted the orbiter's sensitive heat shield
tiling. Ultimately, NASA officials signed a waiver confirming that the bat was
safe to fly with.
"The
bat eventually became 'Interim Problem Report 119V-0080' after the ICE team
finished their walkdown," the memo said. "Systems Engineering and
Integration performed a debris analysis on him and ultimately a Launch Commit
Criteria waiver to ICE-01 was written to accept the stowaway."
This isn't
the first time a bat has attempted to travel into space. Another bat was seen
clinging to the side of the external tank attached to the shuttle Endeavour on
its STS-72 flight in 1996. That one maybe have been a bit more cautious,
though: It flew away to safety right before launch.
Coincidentally,
an astronaut aboard that flight, Koichi Wakata of Japan, also flew on Discovery
this week, making him the first spaceflyer to share two rides with bats.
Discovery's STS-119 mission is headed to the International Space Station to
drop off the final segment of the lab's backbone truss and set of solar array
panels.
NASA
officials said a bat also set down on the external tank for the shuttle
Columbia during its STS-90 mission in 1998. That bat also flitted away to
safety during liftoff, they added.
SPACE.com
is providing continuous coverage of STS-119 with reporter Clara Moskowitz and
senior editor Tariq Malik in New York. Click here for mission
updates and SPACE.com's live NASA TV video feed.
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