Discovery

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Discovery
Space Shuttle Discovery being prepared for mission STS-121.
OV Designation	OV-103
Country	United States
Contract award	29 January 1979
Named after	RRS Discovery
First flight	STS-41-D 30 August 1984 – 5 September 1984
Last flight	STS-116 9 December 2006 - 22 December 2006
Number of missions	33
Crews	199
Time spent in space	268.62 days
Number of orbits	4,229
Distance travelled	–176,657,672 km –109,810,673 mi
Satellites deployed	31 (including Hubble Space Telescope)
Mir dockings	1
ISS dockings	7
Status	Active

Space Shuttle Discovery (NASA Orbiter Vehicle Designation: OV-103) is one of the three currently operational spacecraft 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 Space Shuttle and is now the oldest shuttle in service. Discovery has performed both research and International Space Station (ISS) 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 (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: The Year We Make Contact.

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 planned missions from Vandenberg Air Force Base for the DOD gone ahead, Discovery would have flown these missions.

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