Product Details

The third Space Shuttle to foray into space was Discovery (designated OV-103), its maiden flight occurring on 30 August 1984. A contract for construction of Discovery was awarded to Rockwell International in January 1979 and it rolled out in October 1983. Interestingly, it was 3,120kg lighter than Columbia thanks to construction savings realized after building the three earlier Shuttles. In its 27-year lifespan, Discovery completed 39 successful missions for NASA. Among its accomplishments was spending a cumulative total of 365 days in space, placing the Hubble Space Telescope into orbit, and launching the Ulysses Probe. It traveled 238 million kilometers through space, in the process orbiting Earth 5,830 times. After such a stellar career, it was thus fitting that Discovery should be the first Space Shuttle to enter retirement, something that occurred on 9 March 2011.