Kindred Spirits

A free tail bat clung to the side of the Space Shuttle Discovery before launch on Sunday at Cape Canaveral and refused to let go as the Shuttle took off and rocketed toward space.


"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."



Metaphors.