Space Shuttle Discovery is one of the retired orbiters of the Space Shuttle program of NASA, and was operational from its maiden flight in 1984, until its final landing during in 2011. Discovery has flown more than any other spacecraft having completed 39 successful missions in over 27 years of service.
Space Shuttle Discovery
- NASA’s Space Transportation System (Space Shuttle) program began in the early 1970s and made headlines with the debut of its first Shuttle, OV-101 (Orbiter Vehicle-101), Enterprise, in 1976. The Shuttle’s mission was to carry astronauts and various payloads into space and to deploy, service, and retrieve other satellites. Designed to be several vehicles in one, the Shuttle launched vertically as a rocket, operated in Earth orbit and reentered the atmosphere as a spacecraft, and landed on a runway as a glider. Most of its major hardware elements returned to Earth for reuse.
- Three major elements made up the Shuttle. Central to the system was the airplane-like orbiter that housed the crew and the payload bay. The orbiter was attached to a huge external tank that carried the liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen propellants for the spacecraft’s three main engines. Two solid-propellant boosters supported by the tank augmented main engine thrust for liftoff and initial acceleration.
- The heart of the system was the orbiter, developed by Rockwell International (now Boeing). In addition to a cabin area that could accommodate a maximum crew of nine astronauts, the orbiter had a 60-ft-long (18.3-m), 15-ft-diameter (4.6-m) payload bay with a capacity of up to 50,000 lb (22,675 kg), depending upon orbit inclination.
- Six Space Shuttles were built: the first three accomplished the test program and established initial operations (Enterprise, Columbia, Challenger), the second two expanded the orbiter fleet (Discovery, Atlantis), and Endeavour replaced Challenger. NASM’s former artifact, Enterprise, was the first of these vehicles and tested orbiter aerodynamics and landing capabilities. The five operational Shuttles flew 135 missions during the 30-year period from April 12, 1981, to July 21, 2011. Two of those missions ended in the tragic loss of two vehicles and 14 crew.
Discovery has flown more than any other shuttle with 39 missions totaling 365 days in 5,830 orbits covering 148,221,675 mi. During this time, 251 crewmembers (184 individuals) flew on the ship. Its noteworthy career also included three Return-to-Flight missions: STS-26 in 1988 (following Challenger), STS-114 in July 2005 and STS-121 in July 2006 (both after Columbia’s loss). Discovery deployed the Hubble Space Telescope (see NASM collection), which altered the way we see and think of our universe.- Following its STS-133 mission to the ISS in February-March 2011, Discovery was the first Space Shuttle retired from NASA’s fleet and is the most intact of the four remaining orbiters.
- As the most complex flying machines ever assembled, the space shuttle contained more than 2.5 million parts, 230 miles of wiring, 1,060 valves and 1,440 circuit breakers. All of it had to function properly at extremes of speed, heat, cold, gravity and vacuum. From liftoff to landing, the shuttles flew in extremely high risk.
- In orbit, the space shuttle maneuvered through a hailstorm of 10,000 man-made objects larger than a softball and millions of smaller pieces of debris. At orbital velocities, an object no larger than a pea carried the force of a falling 400-pound. During NASA's first 76 shuttle flights, technicians had to replace 60 cockpit windshields - at $40,000 each - because of pitting from debris. But launch and reentry were even more dangerous.
