Space Shuttle Discovery
Space Shuttle
Discovery is one of three remaining spacecraft in the
space shuttle fleet belonging to the
U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration . First flown in 1984,
Discovery is the third operational space shuttle, and the oldest in service.
Discovery has performed both research and International Space Station assembly missions.
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.
Encyclopedia
Space Shuttle Discovery is one of three remaining spacecraft in the
space shuttle fleet belonging to the
U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration . First flown in 1984,
Discovery is the third operational space shuttle, and the oldest in service.
Discovery has performed both research and International Space Station assembly missions.
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 . The shuttle shares a name with
Discovery One is a fictional [i] spacecraft [i] appearing in The Space Odyssey series [i] ...
, the fictional femer-shaped
Jupiter spaceship from the films
and
.
Discovery was the shuttle that launched the
Hubble Space Telescope. The second and third Hubble service missions were also conducted by
Discovery, and she is currently scheduled to perform the 5th one sometime in 2008. She has also launched the
Ulysses probe and three
TDRS satellites.
Discovery has been chosen twice as the return to flight orbiter, first as the return to flight orbiter after the 1986
Challenger disaster in 1988, and as the orbiter for the return to flight mission in July 2005, 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 planned
DOD shuttle missions from
Vandenberg Air Force Base gone ahead, Discovery would have flown these missions.
STS-114 mission
On July 26, 2005 at 10:39 EDT,
Discovery launched into space on mission
STS-114, marking the first shuttle launch since the February 2003
Columbia disaster. Videos taken during the minutes after the launch revealed that a piece of foam insulation came off
Discoverys external fuel tank, although it apparently did not damage the shuttle. After the problem was discovered, NASA suspended all future launches until the problem is solved. During the mission astronauts removed a piece of gap filler from the nose on an extra-vehicular activity .
Discovery was set to return on August 7, 2005, but their mission was extended due to unfavorable weather conditions. The shuttle returned from orbit on August 9, 2005, landing in darkness at 8:12 AM EDT just before dawn at
Edwards Air Force Base after travelling 5.8 million miles .
Discovery was flown from
Edwards Air Force Base using a
Boeing 747 and landed at the
Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 10 AM, Monday, August 22. After landing,
Discovery was lifted off the back of the 747 and then towed to the nearby
Orbiter Processing Facility marking the end of STS-114. Here,
Discovery was emptied of its cargo from the International Space Station and was readied for the next shuttle mission,
STS-121.
STS-121 mission
STS-121 was the second Return to Flight Testing after the
Columbia accident in 2003, and the 115th launch of the space shuttle overall. At first, the space shuttle
Atlantis was selected for this mission, but after the external tank foam loss issues with STS-114, the launch was delayed to July 2006, enabling
NASA to select
Discovery for STS-121. STS-121 will also continue the demonstration of heat shield repair techniques. STS-121 will visit the International Space Station with additional supplies using the Italian built
Leonardo Multi-Purpose Logistics Module. With sufficient supplies, the ISS could accommodate a third astronaut. German European Space Agency Astronaut
Thomas Reiter joined Russian commander
Pavel Vinogradov and NASA's
Jeffrey Williams, making the ISS truly international again.
Discovery was on launch pad 39B at
Cape Canaveral in preparation for its July 4 launch date, following rollout on May 19. It was twice postponed from the first possible launch times, July 1 at 3:49 PM ET and July 2 at 3:25 PM ET, due to bad weather, in the form of poor visibility at the Shuttle Landing Facillity, and
anvil clouds near the launch site. An approximately six-inch crack was found in the foam on the external fuel tank on July 3rd, however NASA engineers still moved ahead with a July 4th launch.
The shuttle successfully launched at 2:38 pm Eastern Daylight Time . All clear was given by computer systems. The launch was flawless. The external fuel tank was jettisoned at 2:46 Eastern Daylight Time , eight minutes after launch. The launch was covered extensively on
CNN,
Fox News Channel, MSNBC and in High Definition on
HDnet. There were reports on the BBC from NASA officials that four pieces of foam had broken off the fuel tank during take off, but these breakages were not considered to be too important. All of the pieces broke off outside the time window that NASA considered dangerous and only one was above the mass limit that NASA considered to be dangerous for breakages inside the time window.
In contingency for any launch damage which prevented
Discoverys safe return to Earth, the SRBs and External tank for Atlantis
were coupled inside the VAB, making the orbiter available for launch within 50 days. On July 9, Discovery
was cleared to return to Earth on schedule, and on July 17, 2006 at 9:14 AM EDT. Discovery
landed safely at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, despite a slight threat of thunderstorms.
Flights
Space Shuttle Discovery
has flown 32 flights, spent 241.95 days in space, completed 3,808 orbits, and flown 98,710,673 statute miles in total, as of July 2006. It has flown the most flights of all Space Shuttles so far . Discovery
has also flown on more individual flights than any other spacecraft in history and is likely to retain this honor for some time as no planned launch vehicles both American and International have a designed lifespan of more than 10 flights. Discovery
has flown both "return to flight" missions after the Space Shuttle Challenger
and Columbia
disasters: STS-26 in 1988 and STS-114 in 2005.
Discovery is set for retirement in 2010.
Notable missions
...
: First flight
...
: Carried first sitting United States Member of Congress into space,
Senator Jake Garn...
: Return to space after
Challenger disaster
| Date | Designation | Notes |
|---|
| 1984 August 30 | STS-41-D | First Discovery mission: Launched two communications satellites, including LEASAT F2. |
| 1984 November 8 | STS-51-A | Launched two and rescued two communications satellites including LEASAT F1. |
| 1985 January 24 | STS-51-C | Launched DOD Magnum ELINT satellite. |
| 1985 April 12 | STS-51-D | Launched two communications satellites including LEASAT F3. |
| 1985 June 17 | STS-51-G | Launched two communications satellites, Sultan Salman al-Saud becomes first Saudi Arabian in space. |
| 1985 August 27 | STS-51-I | Launched two communications satellites including LEASAT F4. Recovered LEASAT F3. |
| 1988 September 29 | STS-26 | Return to flight since Space Shuttle Challenger disaster, launched TDRS. |
| 1989 March 13 | STS-29 | Launched TDRS. |
| 1989 November 22 | STS-33 | Launched DOD Magnum ELINT satellite. |
| 1990 April 24 | STS-31 | Launch of Hubble Space Telescope . |
| 1990 October 6 | STS-41 | Launch of Ulysses. |
| 1991 April 28 | STS-39 | Launched DOD Air Force Program-675 satellite. |
| 1991 September 12 | STS-48 | Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite . |
| 1992 January 22 | STS-42 | International Microgravity Laboratory-1 . |
| 1992 December 2 | STS-53 | Department of Defense payload. |
| 1993 April 8 | STS-56 | Atmospheric Laboratory . |
| 1993 September 12 | STS-51 | Advanced Communications Technology Satellite . |
| 1994 February 3 | STS-60 | Wake Shield Facility . |
| 1994 September 9 | STS-64 | LIDAR In-Space Technology Experiment . |
| 1995 February 3 | STS-63 | Rendezvous with Mir space station; its only visit. |
| 1995 July 13 | STS-70 | 7th Tracking and Data Relay Satellite . |
| 1997 February 11 | STS-82 | Servicing Hubble Space Telescope . |
| 1997 August 7 | STS-85 | Cryogenic Infrared Spectrometers and Telescopes. |
| 1998 June 2 | STS-91 | Final Shuttle/Mir Docking Mission. |
| 1998 October 29 | STS-95 | SPACEHAB, second flight of John Glenn, Pedro Duque becomes first spaniard in space. |
| 1999 May 27 | STS-96 | Resupply mission for the International Space Station. |
| 1999 December 19 | STS-103 | Servicing Hubble Space Telescope . |
| 2000 October 11 | STS-92 | International Space Station Assembly Flight ; 100th Shuttle mission. |
| 2001 March 8 | STS-102 | International Space Station crew rotation flight |
| 2001 August 10 | STS-105 | International Space Station crew and supplies delivery |
| 2005 July 26 | STS-114 | Return to flight since Space Shuttle Columbia disaster; International Space Station supplies delivery, new safety procedures testing and evaluation. |
| 2006 July 4 | STS-121 | International Space Station crew and supplies delivery. |
| 2006 December 14 | STS-116 | planned: International Space Station crew rotation and assembly . |
Decommissioning of Space Shuttle Discovery
- According to NASA, Space Shuttle Discovery will be decommissioned in 2010. NASA expects to have a reusable launch vehicle by 2014.
Trivia
See also
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This is a
list of missions flown by space shuttles....
External links
