The Discovery Bat's Fate is Confirmed
Written by Ian O'Neill
The injured Free-tailed bat clings onto Discovery's external fuel tank on Sunday (NASA)
However, space launch successes to one side, there has been an undercurrent of concern captivating the world. On Sunday, the shuttle had a stowaway attached to the external fuel tank, and although NASA was sure the little animal wouldn't be a debris risk, the bat remained attached to the shuttle, apparently stuck in place. New details have now emerged about why the bat didn't fly away before Discovery launched…
Brian the Bat was clearly not frozen in this IR image shortly before launch (NASA)
However, during coverage of the shuttle launch, it became clear the bat was still roosting and some theories pointed at the possibility that the creature had become frozen to the tank as the cryogenic hydrogen and oxygen fuel was pumped into the external tank. However, the area where Brian was located (yes, I felt compelled to name him when chatting on Twitter about the situation), was not expected to drop below freezing. On watching Discovery blast off, the assumption was that Brian (then thought to be a fruit bat, he was in fact a Free-tailed bat) had long gone. How wrong we were.
This morning, images of Discovery's launch surfaced and it would appear the bat remained attached to the fuel tank even when the shuttle passed the height of the launch tower. The bat was in it for the duration, he seemed determined to be the first bat in space!
The shuttle climbs, bat still holding on (NASA)
A sad reminder that small animals can be hurt and killed on the ground as we push into space. However, NASA goes through great effort to ensure there is minimal impact on birds and other animals during launches, and NASA can't be blamed for the death of this one bat. At the end of the day, previous experience suggested the bat would simply fly away, unfortunately in this case, a broken wing was the bat's downfall.
Sources: Space.com, NASA, Astroengine.com
Filed under: Space Shuttle
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March 17th, 2009 at 8:48 pm
Poor Brian. He probably died from fright from the sound of the launch itself.
March 17th, 2009 at 9:05 pm
If he had a broken wing, how did he fly up to the fuel tank in the first place?
March 17th, 2009 at 9:08 pm
Sounds like next time it might be an idea to make some loud ultrasonic outbursts around the launch site, and frighten all bats from approaching the launch vehicle. As bats use sonar and echoes to catch their prey Would cost must, it would be harmless, and it would prevent future outcomes like these.
Seeing no coverup in the story is far more impressive than often practice of just sweeping it under the carpet. Pity this doesn't apply in other matters to do with government or business, who are more often than not are prepared to avoid or dismiss the usual problems that might be viewed as negative.
March 17th, 2009 at 9:11 pm
@Mr Bill: I'm assuming he damaged it when landing on the tank. Unless it was one of those sporting injuries he picked up in flight, landed there for a rest, got cramp and couldn't move…
In short, I have no clue but if a bat expert says he's got an injured wing (leg?), I reckon he might have picked it up on landing. Poor bugger.
Cheers, Ian
March 17th, 2009 at 9:11 pm
"As bats use sonar and echoes to catch their prey. Would cost must, it would be harmless, and it would prevent future outcomes like these."
Should read
"As bats use sonar and echoes to catch their prey, ultrasonics would be useful to scare them away. It would not cost much, it would be harmless, and it would prevent future outcomes like these."
Apologies. (missed a line)
March 17th, 2009 at 9:16 pm
Poor bat. All he wanted to do was go into space!
March 17th, 2009 at 9:16 pm
The Life (and death) of Brian! There is a theme for a kids movie.
March 17th, 2009 at 9:23 pm
@Michael: Ouch, that would be one hell of a depressing kids movie!
"Brian lands on the shuttle, wanting to be the first bat in space. Breaks his wing. Hangs off the external tank all day with no sign of help. He has second thoughts, but he can't do anything about it and the shuttle launches. Brian is history."
I really hope there's a decent twist in this story! I can see the crying children running out of the movie theatre now…
Cheers, Ian
PS. How the hell I missed the golden opportunity to drop in a Monty Python-esque title I'll never know! I sooo need to do a follow-up post with your suggestion: "The Life (and Death) of Brian"
March 17th, 2009 at 9:51 pm
They should have named the bat Eric.
Eric the fruit bat.
March 17th, 2009 at 11:02 pm
If it had broken its wing, it would have been just a matter of time before the poor thing would have starved to death. So, we bid thee, Freddy the Free-tailed bat, fare-thee-well!
March 17th, 2009 at 11:05 pm
Let us remember
All small and broken things
Whose fate is sealed
By having crossed our path,
Nothing else.
Whatever Gods love bats,
May They take this one to Their breast,
And give it life again
Upon a world of another star,
With an agreeable spouse
And lots of children.
March 17th, 2009 at 11:44 pm
why does the surface of the tank look so rough?
March 17th, 2009 at 11:53 pm
Anyone for roasted bat?
March 18th, 2009 at 12:56 am
Natural selection at its best. Bats that think it is a bad idea to land on the external fuel tank of space shuttles live. Bats that think it is a good idea to land on the external fuel tank of space shuttles die.
March 18th, 2009 at 1:10 am
Jennifer – because it is rough. The orange stuff is spray-on foam insulation.
They painted it white for the first couple of launches too, but then discovered it wasn't really needed and the paint was adding a significant amount to the mass, so they dropped that practice.
March 18th, 2009 at 1:17 am
Maybe Brian the Bat was trying to get to Asteroid 2009 FH to find some outer space adventure? They never found his body. I think it would make a great kids story! Someone definitely should write that story.
March 18th, 2009 at 1:24 am
How long 'til Disney make a film of this, telling the tale of Brian's inspiring struggle?
A simple bat who had a dream… to be the most famous bat EVER, and to fly higher than any bat had ever flown before… Ignoring his poor background, and his family's poverty, he dragged himself out of the slums of bat town and caught a ride to KSC on the roof of a passing school bus, going to see a launch. Riding the bus he heard, through the roof, the excited conversation of the kids inside, all looking forward to the blast-off, and a flame of inspiration ignited inside his little bat chest – he would be the first bat into space! Reaching KSC he flew off the bus and headed for the launch pad – but a freak gust of wind knocked him off balance and sent him smashing into the external tank! Soon he was sliding and slipping down the tank, but somehow he managed to find a claw-hold, and there he clung on, bravely ignoring the pain from his broken wing, watching the launch preparations below… when the launch came Brian clung on for dear life, and as the shuttle shook and shuddered beneath him and cleared the tower he looked down at the world shrinking below, and up at the achingly blue sky above, and knew his dream was about to come true… he HAD flown higher than any bat had flown before…
(cue inspiring uplifting music… roll titles…)
March 18th, 2009 at 1:39 am
I just learned that Astronomers can never lack for imagination!!
March 18th, 2009 at 2:39 am
Brian Livingston Bat.
March 18th, 2009 at 2:42 am
This was no normal bat, this was an undead vampire who'll look for fresh blood on the ISS. Things could turn horrible out there!
March 18th, 2009 at 3:33 am
Hours of build up.
A senseless death.
Screaming, crying children.
Walt Disney and NASA present:
"The Bat to Terabithia"
~]3
March 18th, 2009 at 3:35 am
No, the bat's name is WALL-E
March 18th, 2009 at 3:49 am
It's amazing how much attention this gets when you consider how many animals (literally millions) get killed by our cars every year!
March 18th, 2009 at 3:53 am
This article has been added to the Astronomy Link List.
March 18th, 2009 at 4:03 am
Sally B,
A bat isn't going to be scared of ultrasonic sounds… it uses them its entire life. Might as well say it would get scared of its own wing.
Other than pitch, it doesn't distinguish the ultrasonic frequencies any differently than the frequencies both humans and bats can hear. Not to mention, it isn't exactly silent around a launch pad just prior to launch.
…and then; read the article. If it was injured, it wouldn't have tried flying away short of being forced off.
March 18th, 2009 at 4:50 am
Of course there would be bats around the Shuttle during Spring launches. It's baseball time. Go White Sox and Go NASA! Both come home safe according to God's will. Da poor bat, sniff, sniff.
March 18th, 2009 at 4:52 am
A footnote to my last comment…The bat's name should be Sir Tanksalot!
March 18th, 2009 at 4:53 am
@stu
"and then, just as it seemed he would be triumphant and reach space, he learned space is actually a vacuum and he asphyxiated. The end."
March 18th, 2009 at 5:34 am
What if he morphed into some space bat and came back w/ laser eyes and started taking revenge for all the injustices brought on bat kind every where in the world LOL
March 18th, 2009 at 6:10 am
Well, if your gonna be road kill, might as well be exceptional road kill!
March 18th, 2009 at 6:29 am
If this bat really had a broken wing, how did it get onto the tank ???
To the Bat-ladder ???
Alan
March 18th, 2009 at 6:46 am
Good bye little bat, and sorry you have to have rude comments from Internet trolls as your eulogy.
March 18th, 2009 at 7:32 am
My guess is the bat broke its wing by flying into the tank, then grabbed on to try to figure out what to do next. Bats don't have the best eyesight.
March 18th, 2009 at 7:38 am
Since we know that the controller who pushed the final ignition switch had "Dent, A" on his namebadge, I propose that we name the bat "Agrajag".
March 18th, 2009 at 8:45 am
That's one expensive Bat-Mobile
March 18th, 2009 at 8:50 am
Dave, that was the most obtuse thing I've ever heard. Does anyone else get that?
March 18th, 2009 at 8:51 am
R.I.P. Brian
March 18th, 2009 at 9:25 am
He was just trying to get to Mars so he could live with the mini-Bigfoots. There, he would not be known as the Tiny Fruit Bat, but rather as the Giant Fruit Bat.
March 18th, 2009 at 9:33 am
Sniff, sniff, I think I'm going to cry. The dangerous space program MUST stop now!
March 18th, 2009 at 9:37 am
DA-NA-NA-NA-NA-NA-NA-NA-NA-NA-NA-NA Spacebat! With his sidekick, FireTank!
March 18th, 2009 at 10:26 am
I'm truly outraged that NASA didn't scrub the launch to save this bat. I am withdrawing my financial support for the organization, and will instead devote my resources toward deep sea exploration to spite space exploration.
March 18th, 2009 at 10:45 am
It is obvious this bat proves that gravity does not exist.
"For as the eyes of bats are to the blaze of day, so is the reason in our soul to the things which are by nature most evident of all."
Aristotle
March 18th, 2009 at 11:36 am
This shuttle's mission patch should definitely have a bat added to it.
March 18th, 2009 at 11:51 am
Countdown until PETA organizes a full-fledged attack against all future NASA missions….
March 18th, 2009 at 12:12 pm
LOL…… This one bat will do more to end NASA (or make so many new enviro-nazi regulations as to make space flight inaccessable) than any human disaster of the past 50 yrs has….
Unbelieveable…. As much as I like animals, if the bat had a broken wing, it was surely doomed in the wild anyways. ohhh thats right, if there wasn't a gigantic orange thing for it to fly into and thus break its wing, then it would have left a healthy life…
Forget what NASA has already done for the enviroment around the Cape…It is by far more lush and populated than most of the rest of the space coast…
But PETA won't care….
I got one— People for the Eating of Tasty Animals…. Yeah, I be likin' that one…
March 18th, 2009 at 12:16 pm
Little guy ended up goin like a Bat-outta-Hell !
March 18th, 2009 at 12:20 pm
It all goes to show you can't be too careful.
March 18th, 2009 at 12:21 pm
First, his wing was obviously functional enough to allow him to fly up to his perch on the booster; I'm sure it was functional enough to let him flutter back down, if he had the chance. If the bat can flit, you must acquit! (reasonable doubt and all that.) I prefer to think that Brian survived and is hanging around at the cave with his buddies saying: "So no sh*t, there I was!"
Second:
Twinkle Twinkle
Little Bat
How I wonder
Where you're at?
March 18th, 2009 at 2:23 pm
No one complains about all the mosquitoes and insects that are hit and burned up as the shuttle launches.
March 18th, 2009 at 2:42 pm
this is not a regular Bat, this is Batman !!!
March 18th, 2009 at 2:43 pm
The bat is not the problem… nor, the idiots that worship animals… The real problem is: "Why keep spending billions and trillions of dollars on an endless and fruitless work in space."
There is no other life in the areas of space that we can travel. You must go beyond the heaven we see, to the where the Creator is – to find life.
And every human that has lived on this planet, in all of history, will meet that Creator after their life here is finished.
Searching for life in between here and there is a waste of time and money.
Everyone will meet THE LORD OF LORDS AND KING OF KINGS – THE LORD JESUS CHRIST when they get there… and will bow their knees to HIM.
Then everyone will finally find "INTELLIGENT LIFE" out there beyond what we see.
March 18th, 2009 at 3:05 pm
Rock, wake up man!
Your GPS and sattelite radio and sattelite TV is working because of this space exploration!
If you don't like space exploration, then please return your GPS, sattelite TV reciever and sattelite radio reciever. Don't watch any weather prediction ever again and remove Google Earth from your computer.
Your god will surely give you the weather predictions and storm warnings needed through your prayers!
March 18th, 2009 at 3:59 pm
Little bat, clinging
I can haz space travel, please?
HOLY SHIT! Blast Off!
March 18th, 2009 at 4:00 pm
One small step for bat
one giant leap for batkind.
March 18th, 2009 at 4:07 pm
http://www.moonport.org/images/bat-in-space.jpg
Sorry, just had to make that one.
March 18th, 2009 at 4:33 pm
Actually, they should update the mission patch. Here is a suggestion I sent to NASA
http://www.moonport.org/images/new_sts119_patch01.jpg
March 18th, 2009 at 4:39 pm
# Dave Says:
March 18th, 2009 at 7:38 am
Since we know that the controller who pushed the final ignition switch had "Dent, A" on his namebadge, I propose that we name the bat "Agrajag".
=============
# Peter Says:
March 18th, 2009 at 8:50 am
Dave, that was the most obtuse thing I've ever heard. Does anyone else get that?
============
Read Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy trilogy. Not only are they the greatest books in the world, you will understand the reference.
March 18th, 2009 at 5:05 pm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ibq2IwznCgc
March 18th, 2009 at 5:55 pm
I don't give a bat's ass.
March 18th, 2009 at 5:55 pm
Squeeee!
March 18th, 2009 at 7:09 pm
Rock – What if I don't beleive in your God, am I still going to get to meet him ?
March 18th, 2009 at 7:51 pm
The tiles should be bat traps,NASA can make money by selling 'freeze dried bats' for 100 euros each. Limit of 10000 bats per trip
March 19th, 2009 at 1:57 am
@Rock:
God and science do mix. Why do you think God gave us the intelligence to build machines to go into space? There are other intelligences out there and God wants us to use our God given brains to go out and find them.
March 19th, 2009 at 7:35 am
This is going to be really funny if the shuttle stage comes back with a bat cryo-frozen to the tank side, to thaw out and fly away. And I don't know about his name and all, but I think when It comes to getting your butt screwed, I think the bat is taking the name "free tailed" a little to far now. hahaha
March 19th, 2009 at 8:18 am
Batmobile, Bat-bike, Bat plane, Bat-boat, now we have the the Bat-shuttle. Perhaps Brian the bat was trying to tell us something. Moving on to the latest news, earlier last night, a mexican bat was seen trying to hi-jack the hub caps off the space shuttle, However the Mexican bats plans had been foiled due to the shuttle owner leaving in a hurry while listoning to the melody "Low, Low, Rider". It was said by many that the mexican bat was angery for the non payment of it federal gold marijuana and was jacking the shuttle as collateral untill payments with food stamps was paid in full. hahaha
March 19th, 2009 at 8:31 am
I guess Rock don't read the bible much. It clearly states that "we are not to worry about our breathern on the distant lights in the night sky". I wonder why it said that? I don't know where bullwinkles' friend got His info, but I don't think it came from the bible. Science and religion does work together. Just don't think of God like the genie in aladdin, but more like mother nature of whom takes it's own sweet time to do something like evolve man or a flower from the atoms of the dust into complex carbon based life with the energy housed in the fabric of matter' vibration and quantum threads..
March 19th, 2009 at 9:12 am
I really don't feel like skimming thru all of the comments to make sure, but I'm almost willing to bet that someone just had to bring up religion with this topic. Here's a statement to end all shit flinging and bickering: "God" created the Universe, the Milky Way Galaxy, the Solar System, all forms of life that have ever walked the Earth, ourselves and our animal counterparts and finally our ability to think and theorize science.
I grew up a God fearing person, but now I don't fear the idea of God's wrath for non-believers; or what conservative wacko religious types would deem "non-believers".
Nobody's perfect and I'd bet you there's twice as many conservative religious types with skeletons in their closets than supposed non-believers.
People in science have their own set of beliefs whether it be a natural creation or creation by a supreme being; possibly a mix of the two. There's no reason why it should turn into "God will smite you if you don't fear him" or "You're insane if you think this all came from spontaneous occurances."
March 19th, 2009 at 9:43 am
@ Eric, ya forgot one though, about how the christians will save the non believers, even if they have to kill them to save their sinfull souls. Remember?
March 19th, 2009 at 10:06 am
What?
March 19th, 2009 at 10:58 am
I wish I could've been the first bat into space. Someone else always has the best ideas before me. First Google, now this.
March 19th, 2009 at 11:10 am
@ US Citizen…
Crap! Forgot about that one!!
Don't forget the televangelists either. "Come to my show for a 'nominal fee' to be enlightened with the power of God and Jesus Christ." Right. The only things being enlightened by that greedy prick's show are the wallets and purses of the 'sheeple' getting roped into their garbage.
March 19th, 2009 at 1:01 pm
How did the bat fly there in the first place if its wing was broken?
March 19th, 2009 at 9:39 pm
@ Eric
Yea, And also they want you to send your money to the Lord, But they give ya THEIR address, hahaha
March 20th, 2009 at 6:39 am
@ US Citizen
Ha! Yes!
Then they take that money and funnel it into the pocket of a pimp on the crappy side of town or into the bank account of a child porn site.
March 20th, 2009 at 9:48 am
I would just like to complain about all the mosquitoes and insects that are hit and burned up as the shuttle launches. Thanks for listening.
March 20th, 2009 at 12:49 pm
@ S.E. Cycloid
Everyone's missing the point here. All that ammonia perclorate burned before it has a chance at life!