We stole it from a bat.
Pad 39A, March 15, 2009. A free-tailed bat on Discovery’s orange tank. NASA lost him after the tower. We took the name, drew him a cape, and went back to arguing about comics, movies, tech, politics, and markets.
The real one first. Then the wink.
The record
What launched. What clung. What the cameras actually showed.
15 Mar 2009 · 19:43 EDT
Pad 39A, Kennedy Space Center
Space Shuttle Discovery stands on the pad for STS-119, a night launch to the International Space Station. The sky is already on fire. On the orange foam of the external tank, something small is moving.
Wildlife
Not a fruit bat
First reports called it a fruit bat. NASA later confirmed a free-tailed bat. A wildlife specialist, reading the video, said the animal likely had a broken left wing and trouble in the right shoulder or wrist. It could not fly off.
ICE-01
They signed a waiver
The final inspection team — ICE — logged the animal as Interim Problem Report 119V-0080. Systems engineering ran a debris analysis. A Launch Commit Criteria waiver to ICE-01 was written to accept the stowaway. NASA hoped it would wake and leave. It did not.
Infrared
Alive. Seventy degrees.
The foam never dropped below 60°F. Infrared showed the bat at about 70°F through countdown — warm, not frozen to the tank as many assumed. It changed direction from time to time. It never let go.
Liftoff
Past the tower
Discovery lifted at 7:43 p.m. EDT. Launch imagery confirmed the bat held on until the vehicle at least cleared the tower. After that, the cameras lost him. NASA’s line: the animal likely perished quickly during the climb to orbit.
NASA’s line: the animal likely perished quickly during the climb to orbit.
Not the show
We like to imagine he got powers. That’s mascot work. The podcast is the five beats.
The name
We stole it
Mission Control posted a cartoon of an “Orbital Bat Sensing System.” Later tellings named him Brian. Gizmodo wrote the eulogy NASA would not: goodbye and godspeed, magnificent Spacebat. We took the name. Not as a documentary. As a mascot. A bat that wouldn’t let go is a decent name for a booth that won’t pick a lane.
Tongue in cheek
We gave him a cape
NASA’s line is he likely perished on the climb. We like to imagine he didn’t — powers, a foam cape, a return. That’s the drawing on the cover. It is not the show. The show is comics, movies, tech, politics, and markets.
“Goodbye and godspeed, magnificent Spacebat.”
John and Dan from a diner booth: comics, movies, tech, politics, and markets.