Though it was actually the first operational space shuttle to be retired from NASA service, the Orbiter Vehicle-103 (OV-103) Space Shuttle Discovery certainly earned that retirement after more than 27 years in service. As the third operational orbiter – preceded only by Columbia and Challenger – Discovery actually launched and landed successfully 39 times, more spaceflights than any other craft to date.
(We got very close to NASA’s Discover Space Shuttle. Check out our original video of the shuttle above.)
By her last mission, the shuttle had flown 149 million miles (238 million km) in 39 missions, completed 5,830 orbits, and spent 365 days in orbit over a career spanning 27 years. Discovery also flew every mission type during the space shuttle era and had a record of distinctions, including carrying Judith Resnik – who became the second American woman in space – on the first mission on August 30, 1984.
In addition, a total of 251 crewmembers also served on Discovery, the highest of any Orbiter Vehicle. Those who served on the shuttle included Charles Walker, a McDonnel Douglas engineer who became the first “non-astronaut” to fly on a space shuttle, as well as Sen. Jake Garn and Sen. John Glenn. Frederick Gregory, who became NASA’s Acting Administrator in 2005, served as the first African American Space Shuttle commander aboard Discovery, while Discovery was also the first piloted by women, including Eileen Collins and Pamela Melroy.
Missions Accomplished – Other Significant Firsts for Discovery
Missions included delivery and retrieval, Department of Defense, scientific, Hubble Space Telescope, Mir, and space station assembly, crew exchange, and resupply missions.
During her 27 years in operation, Discovery conducted eight communications satellite delivery flights, four classified Department of Defense (DoD) flights, and nine with science labs, instruments, and probes as her primary payloads. In addition, the shuttle took part in three Hubble Space Telescope flights and made two flights – including the final shuttle docking – with the Russian space station Mir. The space shuttle also made the first docking with the International Space Station (ISS) in 1999, the first of a total of thirteen flights to the space station.
Discovery also had the distinction of serving as the “Return-to-Flight” vehicle after the Challenger and Columbia tragedies. The first was for STS-26 in 1988, and the second was when it carried the STS-114 crew on NASA’s Return to Flight mission to the International Space Station in July 2005.
Shuttle Discovery at National Air and Space Museum on October 1, 2022. Image Credit: 19FortyFive.com
Discovery Retirement and Legacy
The long-serving Discovery was officially decommissioned on March 9, 2011, and was offered to the Smithsonian Institution’s National Air and Space Museum for public display and preservation. Following a decontamination process, the shuttle was moved to the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Virginia – replacing the Space Shuttle Enterprise. On April 19, 2012, a welcome ceremony was held to mark the craft’s “final wheels stop” and Discovery is now on permanent display.
NASA’s Space Shuttle Discovery. Image Taken by 19FortyFive.com on October 1, 2022.
With the decommissioning of her sister shuttles Endeavor and Atlantis, the program has come to an end – but the legacy of what the Space Shuttles accomplished during more than a quarter century in service lives on, with the development of the X-37B and other experimental spacecraft.
NASA’s Discovery. Image Credit: 19FortyFive.com taken on October 1, 2022.
Bonus: Russia Also Tried to Build a Space Shuttle (See the Buran Below)
Space Shuttle Buran at the Technik Museum Speyer.
This was the third ‘Buran’ space shuttle built but was the first of the second generation shuttle, with several modifications over the initial two aircraft. While ‘Buran’ was the name of the programme and also the first shuttle built, the fleet were all to have different names and this would have been the ‘Baikal’. c/n 11F35 K3. It was only 50% completed when the programme ended and remained stored at the Tushino factory for many years. It moved to Zhukovsky on a barge in 2011. It is assumed that it will become part of some kind of museum. Stored on a grass area next to part of the crowdline and seen during the Russian Air Force 100th Anniversary Airshow. Zhukovsky, Russia.
Visitors at the 38th Paris International Air and Space Shown at Le Bourget Airfield line up to tour a Soviet An-225 Mechta aircraft with the Space Shuttle Buran on its back.
Buran Space Shuttle. Image: Creative Commons.
A Senior Editor for 1945, Peter Suciu is a Michigan-based writer who has contributed to more than four dozen magazines, newspapers, and websites with over 3,000 published pieces over a twenty-year career in journalism. He regularly writes about military hardware, firearms history, cybersecurity, and international affairs. Peter is also a Contributing Writer for Forbes. You can follow him on Twitter: @PeterSuciu.
