Discovery: A Look Back Before Her Last Flight

As preparations continue for the launch of space shuttle Discovery on STS-133, here’s a look back at the history of the oldest orbiter still in service. When this flight is over, 180 people will have flown on Discovery and the orbiter will have traveled over 240 million kilometers (150 million miles).

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy has been with Universe Today since 2004, and has published over 6,000 articles on space exploration, astronomy, science and technology. She is the author of two books: "Eight Years to the Moon: the History of the Apollo Missions," (2019) which shares the stories of 60 engineers and scientists who worked behind the scenes to make landing on the Moon possible; and "Incredible Stories from Space: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Missions Changing Our View of the Cosmos" (2016) tells the stories of those who work on NASA's robotic missions to explore the Solar System and beyond. Follow Nancy on Twitter at https://twitter.com/Nancy_A and and Instagram at and https://www.instagram.com/nancyatkinson_ut/

Recent Posts

An Otherworldly Cloud Over New Zealand

Filmmakers love New Zealand. Its landscapes evoke other worlds, which explains why so much of…

5 hours ago

Early Black Holes Fed 40x Faster than Should Be Possible

The theory goes that black holes accrete material, often from nearby stars. However the theory…

5 hours ago

A Spider Stellar Engine Could Move Binary Stars Halfway Across a Galaxy

Eventually, every stellar civilization will have to migrate to a different star. The habitable zone…

6 hours ago

Scaling Propellant Production on Mars is Hard

Putting humans on Mars has been one of NASA's driving missions for years, but they…

11 hours ago

Is an ‘Off-Year’ Leonid Outburst in the Cards For November?

There are good reasons to keep an eye on the Leonid meteors this year.

12 hours ago

Reaction Engines Goes Into Bankruptcy, Taking the Hypersonic SABRE Engine With it

Rarely does something get developed which is a real game changer in space exploration. One…

17 hours ago