Quote:What Brian the bat's thoughts were when he settled on the space shuttle Discovery will never be known but it is probably safe to assume that being blasted into space at 17,500mph was not among them.
The free-tailed bat stowaway had latched himself onto the shuttle's external fuel tank several hours before countdown.

Every now and then he shifted position.
Nasa officials making a final inspection before take-off at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida had hoped it would wake up and fly away before the engines ignited.

But he didn't and was seen still attached to mission STS-119 as it cleared the tower and accelerated to 17,500mph in eight minutes.
Exactly what happened to him is unclear but it is a fair assumption that he was vaporised during the climb into orbit.
'We're characterizing him as unexpected debris and he's probably still unexpected debris somewhere,' said launch director Mike Leinbach after the take-off.