Discovery fly for the discovery

Space Shuttle Discovery

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OV designation	OV-103
Country	United States
Contract award	January 29, 1979
Named after	RRS Discovery
Status	Active
First flight	STS-41-D August 30, 1984 – September 5, 1984
Last flight	STS-119 March 15, 2009 - March 28, 2009
Number of missions	36
Crews	216
Time spent in space	309.39 days
Number of orbits	4,764
Distance travelled	206,019,288 km (128,014,451 mi)
Satellites deployed	31 (including Hubble Space Telescope)
Mir dockings	1
ISS dockings	9

Space Shuttle Discovery (Orbiter Vehicle Designation: OV-103) is one of the three currently operational orbiters in the Space Shuttle fleet of NASA, the space agency of the United States. (The other two are Atlantis and Endeavour.) When first flown in 1984, Discovery became the third operational orbiter, and is now the oldest orbiter in service. Discovery has performed both research and International Space Station (ISS) assembly missions.

History

The spacecraft takes its name from previous ships of exploration named Discovery, primarily HMS Discovery, the sailing ship that accompanied famous explorer James Cook on his third and final major voyage. Others include Henry Hudson's ship Discovery which he used in 1610–1611 to search for a Northwest Passage, and RRS Discovery, a vessel used for expeditions to Antarctica in 1901-1904 by Scott and Shackleton (and still preserved as a museum). The shuttle shares a name with Discovery One, the fictional Jupiter spaceship from the films 2001: A Space Odyssey and 2010.

Discovery was the shuttle that launched the Hubble Space Telescope. The second and third Hubble service missions were also conducted by Discovery. She has also launched the Ulysses probe and three TDRS 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 also 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 STS-62-A planned missions from Vandenberg Air Force Base in 1986 for the United States Department of Defense gone ahead, Discovery would have flown those missions.

Flights

Discovery has flown 35 flights, completed 4,888 orbits, and flown 117,433,618 miles (195,938,294 km) in total, as of June 2008^[update]. Discovery is the orbiter fleet leader, having flown more flights than any other orbiter in the fleet, including four in 1985 alone. Discovery flew all three "return to flight" missions after the Challenger and Columbia disasters: STS-26 in 1988, STS-114 in 2005, and STS-121 in 2006.

• STS-41-D: First flight.
• STS-51-D: Carried first sitting United States Member of Congress into space, Senator Jake Garn (R-UT).
• STS-26: Return to space after Challenger disaster (STS-51-L).
• STS-31: Launch of Hubble Space Telescope.
• STS-60: First Russian launched in an American spacecraft (Sergei Krikalev).
• STS-95: Second flight of John Glenn, oldest man in space and third sitting Member of Congress to enter space.
• STS-92: The 100th Space Shuttle Mission.
• STS-114: Return to space after Columbia disaster (STS-107).
• STS-121: First Shuttle launch on the 4th of July Holiday, Return to Flight mission.
• STS-116: First night time launch of a shuttle since the Columbia disaster. Last Shuttle launch from LC-39B
• STS-120: Longest mission so far for this space shuttle.

source: internet