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That's it, she's done. Nothing to comment on really, but here's what I thought were some interesting facts about Discovery.
At 11:57 a.m. EST, the Space Shuttle Discovery landed at Kennedy Space Center for the final time after 202 orbits around Earth and a journey of 5,304,140 miles on STS-133. It was the 39th and final flight of Discovery.
In it's service life, Discovery spent 365 days in space, orbited Earth 5,830 times and traveled 148,221,675 miles. Roughly just over half the distance to the Moon. Discovery is the orbiter fleet leader, having flown more flights than any other orbiter in the fleet...including four in 1985 alone.
Discovery was the shuttle that launched the Hubble Space Telescope. The second and third Hubble service missions were also conducted by Discovery. It also launched the Ulysses probe and three Tracking and Data Relay satellites.
Discovery has been chosen twice as the return to flight orbiter, first in 1988 as the return to flight orbiter after the 1986 Challenger disaster, and then for the twin return to flight missions in July 2005 and July 2006 after the 2003 Columbia disaster.
Discovery carried Project Mercury astronaut John Glenn, who was 77 at the time, back into space during STS-95 on October 29, 1998. Making him the oldest human being to venture into space.
Had the planned STS-62-A mission from Vandenberg Air Force Base in 1986 for the United States Department of Defense gone ahead, Discovery would have flown it.
According to the current schedule, Discovery will be decommissioned in 2011. NASA has offered Discovery to the Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum for public display and preservation as part of the national collection after the orbiter has been retired. Discovery will replace Space Shuttle Enterprise in the Smithsonian's display at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center.
At 11:57 a.m. EST, the Space Shuttle Discovery landed at Kennedy Space Center for the final time after 202 orbits around Earth and a journey of 5,304,140 miles on STS-133. It was the 39th and final flight of Discovery.
In it's service life, Discovery spent 365 days in space, orbited Earth 5,830 times and traveled 148,221,675 miles. Roughly just over half the distance to the Moon. Discovery is the orbiter fleet leader, having flown more flights than any other orbiter in the fleet...including four in 1985 alone.
Discovery was the shuttle that launched the Hubble Space Telescope. The second and third Hubble service missions were also conducted by Discovery. It also launched the Ulysses probe and three Tracking and Data Relay satellites.
Discovery has been chosen twice as the return to flight orbiter, first in 1988 as the return to flight orbiter after the 1986 Challenger disaster, and then for the twin return to flight missions in July 2005 and July 2006 after the 2003 Columbia disaster.
Discovery carried Project Mercury astronaut John Glenn, who was 77 at the time, back into space during STS-95 on October 29, 1998. Making him the oldest human being to venture into space.
Had the planned STS-62-A mission from Vandenberg Air Force Base in 1986 for the United States Department of Defense gone ahead, Discovery would have flown it.
According to the current schedule, Discovery will be decommissioned in 2011. NASA has offered Discovery to the Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum for public display and preservation as part of the national collection after the orbiter has been retired. Discovery will replace Space Shuttle Enterprise in the Smithsonian's display at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center.