Edited by Rachel Heung
11 years on this date, the Space Shuttle Discovery landed at the Kennedy Space Center at 10:57:17 am CST for the last time (Savage, 2011). It had just completed its 13-day mission STS-133. Space Shuttle Discovery retired with 39 flights, its last mission being the 133rd Space Shuttle mission (Lethbridge, 2011).
On the STS-133 mission was the main payload, the Permanent Multipurpose Module Leonardo. Other payloads included the Express Logistics Carrier 4 and Robonaut 2. Space Shuttle Discovery docked at the International Space Station (ISS) on 26th of 2011 February and undocked on 7th of 2011 March. There were 2 spacewalks in between, totalling nearly 13 hours of spacewalk (Lethbridge, 2011).
Totaling 39 missions, the Space Shuttle Discovery covered all sorts of flights.
8 communications satellite deliveries
4 Department of Defense flights
9 science instrument primary payload flights
3 Hubble Space Telescope flights
2 Russian space station flights (Mir)
& 13 International Space Station flights
These 39 missions span over the course of 30 years, servicing from 1981 to 2011 (Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, n.d).
The Space Shuttle Discovery was NASA’s third space shuttle orbiter. In 1983, it arrived at the Kennedy Space Center for the first time, launching the very next year for its first mission of deploying three communication satellites. The name Discovery comes from the tradition of exploring the Earth with ships(NASA, n.d).
References
Lethbridge, C. (n.d.). STS-133 Fact Sheet. Spaceline. Retrieved March 2, 2022, from
https://www.spaceline.org/united-states-manned-space-flight/space-shuttle-mission-
program-fact-sheets/sts-133/
NASA. (n.d.). Space Shuttle Overview: Discovery (OV-103). NASA. Retrieved March 2,
2022, from https://www.nasa.gov/centers/kennedy/shuttleoperations/orbiters/
discovery-info.html
Savage, S. (2011, March 9). Discovery's Final Touchdown A Success. RedOrbit. Retrieved
March 2, 2022, from https://www.redorbit.com/news/space/2009363/discoverys_final_
touchdown_a_success
Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. (n.d.). ABOUT SPACE SHUTTLE
DISCOVERY. Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. Retrieved March 2, 2022,
from https://airandspace.si.edu/explore-and-learn/topics/discovery/about.cfm
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