Bat Hitched Short Ride on Shuttle

A small bat clung to the space shuttle Discovery's fuel tank throughout its launch Sunday, Space.com reports. Observation teams had hoped it would fly away before liftoff, but images reveal it stayed with the shuttle as it blasted off from Kennedy Space Center. NASA officials, who judged the bat was no threat to the shuttle's heat tiling, believe the stowaway must have perished shortly after blastoff.
(More Discovery stories.)