Shuttle Comes With a Stowaway

[The_root_of_all_evil]

Shuttle Comes With a Stowaway

The Space Shuttle Discovery lifted off from Cape Canaveral this past Sunday with an unexpected extra passenger tagging along.

The stowaway, a bat, wasn't decked out in a tiny little space suit, but rather clinging like mad to the foam on the external tank. The final inspection team spotted it before liftoff but hoped that it would detach before the shuttle's engines ignited.

For reasons known only to the bat, it hung on; and really hung on as the the shuttle accelerated from 0 to 100mph(161kph) in just 10 seconds.

As the shuttle cleared the launch tower, there was still a bat-shaped speck visible on the side of its fuel tank.

Did it survive? Well, there's more chance than you might think. The side of the tank is insulated to keep it at around 60 degrees while in the atmosphere, and as long as the G force was enough to knock out a human, it might be enough to detach its claws.

Say it with me, now: Baaaaaats iiiiin spaaaaaaaaaace!

Source: ABC News [http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/story?id=7107251] via Slashdot [http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/03/18/1232233]
(Image) [http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/shuttlemissions/sts119/launchbat.html]

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[NeedAUserName]

Won't it suffocate though... Although I will admit, it would be great if Bats were the first to colonize the Moon.

 

[Rhayn]

For a second I thought they had found life on mars. The picture almost looked like somekind of image from the surface of said planet, with something resembling an elephant.

I'm quite sure the difference in pressure got to the bat before it was able to colonize Pluto though. But who knows, perhaps in a not so distant future we'll see bats flying around space in their own space shuttles?

 

[Beacon]

So...in ten years we'll discover that bats can live in space when this thing returns to kill us all. =D

 

[PedroSteckecilo]

Maybe he's an alien space bat trying to return home?

That's where I'm putting my money.

 

[Combined]

I'm sure I speak for myself when I say this: Yum. Fried bat.

 

[karmapolizei]

Space Bats, anyone?
http://www.dosgamesarchive.com/download/game/110

 

[Unknower]

NUKE IT FROM ORBIT! IT'S THE ONLY WAY TO BE SURE!

Wait what? Stowaway from Earth? Well, nuke it anyway. Nuclear explosions in space look funny.

 

[elmaxx]

Soon to be made into an epic hollywood movie; Zack Snyder, Ridley Scott and Michael Bay are battling it out, cage-match-all-out brawl style to see who gets his pudgy little hands on this baby.

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

I first thought it was Edward Cullen trying to distance himself from the Twilight series.

 

[Anton P. Nym]

I look at that picture, and I can't help but hear, in my mind, an ultrasonic/hypersonic "Yeeeee-HAW!". (*cue "Bat out of Hell"*)

-- Steve

 

[ThaBenMan]

Wow, that little dude has balls befitting a much larger animal.

 

[Booze Zombie]

I feel sorry for the little thing, it has no idea it's on a spaceship...

I do hope it survived, the optimist I am.

 

[Landslide]

Space barnacle

 

[UFriday]

I believe that he was a scout. Now that bats have secured a position in nearly every country on earth, their partially blind eyes have turned towards space....

to the final frontier....


Either this or the twilight one