In case you missed it, as somehow I did, shortly before the shuttle Discovery’s launch last week (Misson STS-119, if you’ve scoring on your programme at home), a free tail bat latched on to its external fuel tank, in what to can only be surmised to be an obvious attempt to cut the line in the stringent astronaut selection process. In a way, he did become officially recognized, as his callsign became Interim Problem Report 119V-0080.
Unlike previous bat-attempted stowaways, this one had the guts to stay latched on to the tank through the igniting of the engines and lift-off of the rocket (it may have had something to do with it’s broken left wing and an injured right shoulder or wrist that naturalists noted before the launch). The point is, our mammalian counterpart does have a helluva lot more flying hours under his belt than any of us, and officials do know that he cleared the tower.
From here, we’ll quote the Globe’s Nerd Girl, Dr. Jennifer Gardy:
While in my heart of hearts I had hoped that SpaceBat at least made it out of the troposphere…the reality of the shuttle launch is that he probably only held on for a few seconds past the tower before he lost his grip. After a mere moment of free-fall, little IPR 119V-0080 would have tumbled into the solid rocket booster’s exhaust plume and expired in a blazing hot trail of spent rocket fuel.
As my shuttle-savvy friend bluntly put it, “In all probability, Squeaky McSpaceBat’s body was charred to almost beyond recognition, then swept up with all the rest of the miscellaneous debris that falls on the pad post-launch. But it’s way cooler if he made it to space, so I’m going with that.” Link
We’ll leave you with this, somewhat sentimental and definitely not necessarily accurate, YouTube tribute video:
And then this documdrama. While not entirely accurate, it is based on a true story, which means it’s way more accurate than any horror movie that has used that tagline…