As the Darwin awards have taught us, some deaths are embarrassing. But death can be glorious, too -- whether it comes after a heroic act to save the life of a child, or after an attempt to cling to the side of a space shuttle as it blasts into space.

A bat, injured and frail, managed to experience the greatest death possible recently, when it clung to the space shuttle Discovery's fuel tank as it lifted off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

According to NASA, the bat had a broken left wing and a problem with its right wrist or shoulder. And so, crippled and dying, and (we like to think) in search of a glorious end, the little guy decided to cling to the foam of a fuel tank and let the massive craft take him high up into the night sky for one last adventure.

NASA said the bat died very quickly during launch. But maybe Space Bat made it longer than that?

Perhaps Space Bat turned and saw the Earth fall away, and experienced for one last time the majesty of flight?

Perhaps he saw the world in a way no other creature has before, and then witnessed the vastness of space and our own fragile existence within it? Perhaps he was even picked up by aliens and is now enjoying a brand-new life aboard the holo-deck of some advanced civilization?

Possibly not. But we hope so. You deserve it, Space Bat, wherever you are.

Click here for another picture of Space Bat's victorious end.