NASA’s Discovery Space Shuttle launched from the Kennedy Space Center on mission STS-119.
The 156th crewed NASA space flight and 28th Space Shuttle mission to the ISS would have been a completely uneventful trip if it weren’t for a stowaway that tried to hitch a ride. During the countdown, a bat was seen clinging to the shuttle’s external fuel tank. The flight operators thought it would fly away during blast-off, but the bat clung on for quite some time before it was shaken off.